Lot 870
1948. NGC graded MS-68 Full Bell Lines. Star. Wonderful original toning on both sides. The best we have ever seen. The only Franklin Half ever graded this high. On the cover of Whitman Franklin/Kennedy book, second edition. Pop 1; none finer at NGC.
Designed by John R. Sinnock. According to Donald Taxay’s studies of this subject, "It is said that Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross envisioned a Benjamin Franklin coin after the issue of Sinnock’s Franklin medal in 1933. It was not, however, until 1948, after four presidential portraits had been adopted on the coinage, that the Director asked Sinnock to design a Franklin half dollar. Sinnock modified his earlier profile, and adopted for the reverse of the coin the Liberty bell device on his 1926 U.S.A. sesquicentennial half dollar. To meet legal requirements, a diminutive eagle was placed to the right of the bell."
The Commission on Fine Arts objected to the small eagle, but "possibly in deference to Sinnock the Commission’s ideas were rejected, and their records show nothing further concerning the Franklin half dollar."
This was Sinnock’s last work. At the request of Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross, he completed the obverse and reverse models only a few weeks before his death (May 1947). The half-dollar design was legally changeable any time after July 1, 1941, but escalated wartime demands for coins occasioned the delay.
Estimated Value $50,000-UP.
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