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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Kasia, post: 1347926, member: 31533&quot;]I have a couple of favorite series of coins in my collection. One of them is the Franklin Half Dollar, with the name popularly shortened to ‘Frankies’. This probably is my favorite of all the modern series other than the Roosevelt dime, which ranks about the same with me. I pretty much like the Roosevelts for the current circulating coins, and the Frankies for the coins that are larger denominations larger than the quarter.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; One of the reasons I like the Franklin Half so much is that it has a heft that is reminiscent of the older large coins, which is always a plus in my mind, as well as a reminder of when Half Dollars freely circulated in our society. And part of its attraction is due to the sudden and unexpected ending of the series, which puts it into an affordably collected series, as well as because of the personage of Ben Franklin as a person and a historical figure.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; You really can’t talk about the Franklin Half Dollar without going into some of the history of the coin that followed it, or why it came about. It only came about because the then current mint director, Nellie Tayloe Ross (1933-1953) was an ardent admirer of Benjamin Franklin. It was she that ordered the mint engraver, John R. Sinnock to design it. And it is a coin, which because of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, was abruptly stopped so that the Half Dollar could honor our loved and then recent president.&nbsp; That also stopped the Franklin from having its series interrupted by changing the metal from 90 percent silver to 40 percent silver to a fully clad composition in just five years, at a time that silver coins that began to be hoarded.&nbsp; Instead of the Frankie, the Kennedy Half Dollar had that distinction and the change in design and composition lead to the quick decline; in one generation the regularly circulating half dollars in our society stopped. I think that if when Kennedy was assassinated that if Congress had not rushed through the bill to change the Half Dollar design, it could be said that the Half Dollar would be considered a regularly circulating coin in our country instead of being an anachronism.&nbsp; If there had been no change in design in 1964, then probably the Half Dollar would have circulated well that year, and the series would then have followed the clad change as the quarter dollar did, and continued to circulate. But at the time there was a fevered effort to memorialize the fallen president, similar to the quick design change from the Mercury Dimes to the Roosevelt Dimes in 1946. So it was not an unusual move, just one that because of the composition change did not have a chance to succeed.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; So, the Franklin Half Dollar Series is a short one, only from 1948 to 1963. Its obverse design by Sinnock was based on an eighteenth-century bust by French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. It is a very strong design that works well on the coin, and authentically captures the personage of Ben Franklin,&nbsp; Patriot and Statesman-Entrepreneur&nbsp; of America in France in 1776 and beyond; he stayed several years, interacting with the French People and pushing for the goals of the new United States (Congress granted him the title of “Minister Plenipotentiary” in 1779). His work in obtaining supplies and support from the French was so important to our country, that some historians have said that it was quite possible that the United States may not have succeeded in our attempts to throw off the chains of colonial subservience to Britain had no other European country been aiding and abetting the process. Benjamin Franklin is known for many things, such as being the First Postmaster General, his publishing of the Pennsylvania Gazette and Poor Richards Almanac, his discovery of the electrical nature of lightning, being a signer of the Constitution of the United States, and others. He was a brilliant man, freeing himself from the yokes and shackles society put on him in his puritan hometown of Boston, where he had the audacity to have been born on a Sunday. His parents were so ashamed of that, because current thought in that community at the time put the day of birth (day of the week) automatically as the same as the day of conception, thereby branding the elder Franklins as people who broke the holiness of the Sabbath day, that his father rushed out the day of Benjamin’s birth, January 17, 1706 (new style calendar date) to church to have him baptized, and declared him two days old at that point. He rose from a life of being forced into a trade, and using that trade to secretly write treatises that went against the mainstay Puritan church led society, to being someone who had such vast interests that he succeeded on many fronts during his lifetime. He is most well known as being a resident of Philadelphia, which became a hot-bed of political insurgence. He also had a part and input into the design and casting process of the Liberty Bell, but his recommendations for the rapid cooling procedure for the bell were not properly understood and not followed, and what resulted from the alternate type of used was a crack in the bell on its first ring. </p><p>&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; At first glance, it seems so appropriate that the reverse features the Liberty Bell. It, by itself is fitting for a man so associated with Philadelphia and our freedom. The requirements, however, for the coin deemed it necessary for an eagle to be placed on the reverse. This was accomplished by putting a small eagle device just to the right of the bell.&nbsp; But on further consideration, all the devices used on this coin are strange. Firstly, Ben Franklin never wanted a person to be on a coin, so to have his bust portrayed such is not with what he thought the country should produce. He actually died prior to any coinage by the U.S., so he did not have any actual experience in this. But he thought honoring a person on a coin, such as King or other head of state was not in line with what the colonists envisioned for our country, where the country was more important than the leader. Secondly, the bell was a bell that Franklin was very disgusted with in its results, and lastly, the eagle was not a bird that Franklin thought would be proper for our national bird.&nbsp; --- rather he proposed that our national bird be the American Wild Turkey, a bird of good moral character!</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; But I am glad that this design made its way into our coinage. It has a superbly strong, both obverse and reverse, and is a reminder of a historical person so important to our nation’s identity that I think it fitting that Ben Franklin was honored in this fashion. It can be collected as a full series, with all three mints that produced it being represented: Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco, which is probably the most common way to do so. It can also be put together in a more historical context, which is what my collection is --- just the Philadelphia coins, as this coin is so intertwined with that city and with the city that gave us our freedom from colonial suffrage to Britain.&nbsp; Take a trip to Philadelphia and you may see it in that context too!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]155999.vB[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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