Owner Comments:
This is a higher mintage coin of 5,554,000 pieces and XF-AU examples are readily available. They can easily appear to be mint state to inexperienced numismatists and the price jump from AU to MS is HUGE. Moderately circulated examples exist in high numbers. True mint state coins are quite scarce and fully struck specimens are extremely rare. A true condition rarity.
Striking problems, especially in the right facing thumb & hand, center skirtlines, eagle’s breast area and trailing leg, are common for this issue. Abrasions on this issue are about average for the Walker series. Surfaces appear to be a bit brighter than on other issues of 1916 and 1917, normally showing the subdued, satin luster common for those years. Some even display a frosty cartwheel effect. Investment potential is well above average for grades MS63 and higher, particularly for examples with better strikes and good luster, as MANY are softly struck and also dull in luster from over-dipping.
The fields on this present MS 64 specimen are VERY lustrous and brilliantly frosty with areas of champagne encompassing bright silver. A stone-gray, choice half dollar with a mint-made, matte-like appearance----I truly admire the pearly fields of this essentially original piece. The surfaces are also especially clean of any marks or abrasions. The strike is superlative, as the obverse has a VERY full thumb and knuckles showing on the right facing hand----even the index finger is mostly distinguishable.The center branch stem line is deeply struck and fully split and the smaller, finer branch stem line above the right facing index finger is MOSTLY delineated with VERY SMALL areas of weakness or interruption. The center skirtlines are BOLD and the head is FULL, too. The eagle's breast and trailing leg feathers on the reverse, which are almost always weak for this issue, are very bold, as well. CAC has stickered this for PQ eye appeal and I, myself, agree with the bean and the grade, which is more important than anything else to me.
Pop report shows approximately 450-500 TOTAL MS 64 survivors at both services with PCGS at 236/62 and NGC at 270/27 as of 01/2014.
The CAC pop is 27/17 in MS 64.
From The Fred Yee Collection of United States Coins.