1955 Franklin Half (Opinions)

What were they thinking with that engraving? Obviously the Hair would disapear
and the coin would blanche out. Why would they design that kind of impossible to present detail?

Ruben

 

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Except for some highlights that wasn't true of the Morgan, Barbara half, flying eagle penny, the Kennedy have, et al. This design seems to be especially plauged with design wash out for business strikes, and they must have known that when they designed it.

The new quarter designs are engraved to make extra shape hair design.



Ruben

 

Well, sorry for the confussion. What I was saying is that the coins proof, as you can see in the image, has a lot of detail in the hair of Franklin, detail that they must have none would never be vissible in a business strike. As time goes by, this gets even worse. The coin relly suffered in poor design, IMO, which becomes even more apearent when you look 1960 newly engraved proof.

So, OK, if the original suffers such a mistake, why not make a correction in 1960 at least?

Ruben

 

i thought the proofs used different die's then circulated coins... to do that, i thought they would also have their own hub ....

so what your saying is that the master hub is the same, and from that they make impressions for the proofs and business strike dies?

 

The odd thing about 1955 Franklin's is the prices for MS-60's is just barely above the price for the lesser grades!! There must have been huge HOARDING going on in that year!! I have one roll of '55's and the strikes all look great, plus the end roll coins are toned beautifully!! Love the Franks!!

 

Essential I'm saying that based on what I had see of Franklin Halves, even in high mint states, is that the coin looks worn out and flat. When you look at the proof, its a real eye opener as to the original design concept, which is far different than the general coinage result. A design which has such a huge difference between the master and the business strike would indicate a fault in the basic design. By 1959 someone thought the coin was looking worn. Well guess what, the coin ALWAYS looks worn, and Franklin ***always*** look bald. The suprise is that its not designed that way! So you'd think that in 1960 that they'd try to fix that since they've gone that far as engraving a new master hub.

Ruben