1943 Half Doubled Obverse

Some probably prefer the winged liberty dime.

Yeah, I'm a fan of the dime, sure. And don't get me wrong, the design of the half is marvelous, such a dynamic composition what with Miss Liberty doing all that walking, how often do you get action on an American coin? Very cool. That said, the upper part of that flag isn't really conveying movement, it is more just amorphous than billowing, doesn't really carry through convincingly to the flag below her arm. And the shrubbery in her other arm, it looks like Adolph was phoning it in over there. The sweep of the branches does a great job bringing your eye around and adding to the movement of the composition, but those leaves are not really delineated individually, nor are they sculpted at all, especially on the oak branch. It is quite possible he was going for an impressionist rendering of the wind by implied rustling of the leaves via this lack of definition, in which case I applaud his ambition, but I don't think it was successful. Wikipedia says the coin annoyed the mint because it never struck well, and indeed, weak strikes make these issues much worse. Weak strikes also completely kill the masterfully executed foreshortening of her right (your left) hand. So in general, it feels a bit muddy to me.

to CCF.
nice thoughts on the design elements - now I need to go look at a similar coin that is not as worn as this one for comparison.

That all makes sense to me.