Franklin's reluctant portrait
Benjamin Franklin, printer, scientist, diplomat, and lifelong skeptic of vanity, reportedly preferred proverbs and symbols to portraits on money. History has a sense of humor: in 1948, the United States put Franklin's face on the half dollar anyway. The series was championed by Nellie Tayloe Ross, the pioneering director of the U.S. Mint, who admired Franklin and wanted him honored on a circulating coin. Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock modeled the design, his initials JRS resting at Franklin's shoulder.
A bell with a crack, an eagle by law
The reverse stars the Liberty Bell, rendered honestly, famous crack and all. Federal law, however, required an eagle on the half dollar, so a small eagle was added beside the bell, so modest that collectors joke it's the most reluctant eagle in American coinage. The pairing of Franklin and the bell made the coin an instant emblem of Philadelphia and of independence itself.
Sixteen years, thirty-five coins
Struck in 90% silver at Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco from 1948 through 1963, the Franklin series totals just thirty-five date-and-mint combinations, with no impossible rarities barring the door. That makes it one of the friendliest complete sets in American numismatics: a realistic goal for a new collector, and a satisfying hunt for a seasoned one chasing every coin with Full Bell Lines.
Ended by history
The series was scheduled to run for years more, but after President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, the nation moved with extraordinary speed to honor him on the half dollar. The Kennedy half arrived in early 1964, and Franklin's sixteen-year tenure ended, making his series a closed, collectible time capsule of postwar America, struck entirely in silver.