1916-S 50C Walking Liberty Half Dollar PCGS MS63

Greatly desired first-year S-Mint issue of Walking Liberty half dollar. Adolph A. Weinman's always popular, beautiful design graces this coin. The 1916-S has the fourth lowest mintage of the entire Walking Liberty series. PCGS has graded 190 in MS63, with 452 finer.

Bas-relief portrait of Adolph A. Weinman (1915) by Anthony de Francisci.

As was the case with the Denver Mint, dies for the new Walking Liberty half dollar did not arrive at the San Francisco Mint until November 27, 1916. Production of other denominations were deemed more urgent, resulting in only 508,000 1916-S halves being struck by year's end. Unlike the half dollars emanating from the Philadelphia Mint that year, the S-Mint halves were not widely saved in Mint State condition.

That was because the bulk of coin collectors lived in the eastern third of the nation. Only serious collectors took the time to write to the Mint in San Francisco requesting specimens of the 1916-S half dollar. At that time, coins were obtainable at face value plus postage by writing directly to each mint.  NGC Coin Explorer writes, "Typically, 1916-S half dollars are the most weakly struck of the three issues, [though] this problem was then not as severe as it would become in later years. All 1916-S half dollars bear the tiny mintmark used that same year for cents, nickels, dimes and gold coins."