Owner Comments:
Circulation strike mintage 8,904,000
Most 1944-S Liberty Walking Half Dollars commonly have weak areas. Cherrypicking from the vast mintage of examples in the marketplace didn't yield an example with strong strike but, generally speaking, the 1944-S rarely presents with a strong strike anyway. From my reading and limited experience, luster is usually frosty with plenty of eye appeal. Contact marks in the examples I examined were consistent across the board.
Examples of this year/mintmark almost always have substantial weakness in the central obverse and reverse areas. Since MS-62s and lower grades had dismal strikes and numerous contact marks, I sprung for a respectable MS-63 with my particular example in the photos being very bright white, with a satiny finish, and exhibiting very distinctive luster bands. The fields on the obverse and reverse are mostly smooth with an occasional light contact mark.
On the obverse, Miss Liberty's head shows almost full details while, on the reverse, the Eagle's breast and left leg are weak.