Thoughts On Collecting Franklin Halves

I only have one Franklin half, it's a pretty cool coin but for now I'm steering clear of collecting things other than Indian Head pennies. I say you should go for collecting the Halves.

I like the Franklin halfs too. I only have 4 - 3 raw and one graded from anacs

I started collecting Frankies because my dad said they were the ugliest coin ever designed :) Like several people have mentioned here, they began in my birth year and ran a too short time. I am working on a proof set and those rascals can cost some real money. One of the things I have found interesting about graded frankies is the difference between the full bell designation by NGC and PCGS. I believe NGC grades them harder than PCGS which seems to flow counter to their reputation. Anyone else notice that?

rons
what years do you still need? I am also trying to fill the proof set of the series and I do have a couple duplicates, some from winning multiple auctions at the same time, and a couple from forgetting I already had a year when I bid at work

I think that the Franklins are a good set if you are looking to put together a relatively inexpensive set. (This is the only complete set that I have) No key dates, and you'll hardly have to pay more than silver value to get a circulated set. Even the UNC coins are obtainable at pretty reasonable prices for most coins. I like the design, and think the Franklins will only go up in value considering their relatively low mintage.

Regarding the 'dull strikes' of the Franklin half, the master die (used to make hundreds of individual dies for each year) was used from 1948 - 1959 before it was re-cut in 1960 to add more detail to the dies. This is why early date full strikes had much detail (espescially in the hairlines and profile), and the later dates up until 1959 did not.

i have a question, my brother works for a bank, and I had him grab me a couple rolls of halves to search for Franklins. I'm a new collector, and my question is this: if I do find a franklin, what kind of condition should I expect it to be in? I've never done this before, but I'm very interested in starting, and w/ my bro having more access most, I thought I would have a leg up on some collectors.