This listing is for one 1955 Franklin Silver Half Dollar, as pictured. Choose by grade! No Mint Mark, denoting the Philadelphia Mint. 1955 is the lowest mintage of the Franklin Half Dollar series, making it the key date for this coin type.
The Franklin half dollar was struck by the United States Mint from 1948 to 1963. The fifty-cent piece pictures Founding Father Benjamin Franklin on the obverse and the Liberty Bell on the reverse. A small eagle was placed to the right of the bell to fulfill the legal requirement that half dollars depict the figure of an eagle.
Mint director Nellie Tayloe Ross had admired Franklin, and wanted him to be depicted on a coin. In 1947, she instructed her chief engraver, John R. Sinnock, to prepare designs for a Franklin half dollar. Sinnock's designs were based on his earlier work, but he died before their completion. The designs were completed by Sinnock's successor, Gilroy Roberts. The Mint submitted the new designs to the Commission of Fine Arts ("Commission") for its advisory opinion. The Commission disliked the small eagle and felt that depicting the crack in the Liberty Bell would expose the coinage to jokes and ridicule. Despite the Commission's disapproval, the Mint proceeded with Sinnock's designs.
After the coins were released in April 1948, the Mint received accusations that Sinnock's initials "JRS" on the cutoff at Franklin's shoulder were a tribute to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (Stalin did not have a middle name that began with an 'R'). No change was made, with the Mint responding that the letters were simply the artist's initials. The coin was struck regularly until 1963. Beginning in 1964 it was replaced by the Kennedy half dollar, issued in honor of the assassinated President John F. Kennedy.
1955 Franklin Half Dollar- BU (Uncirculated) Grade - Key Date of the Franklin Series - 1955P Silver Half Dollar - Philadelphia Mint