PCGS Blog

Collecting Walking Liberty Half Dollars

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Don Willis2 Comments

Walkers have always been one of the most popular United States issues to collect. For starters the design, by Adolph A. Weinman, is acknowledged as one of the most beautiful of any US coin. The entire series runs from 1916 through 1947 with 65 dates and mint marks. The series can be collected in many different ways and is often divided into three sub-series: the short set 1941-1947 (20 coins); the middle set 1934-1940 (19 coins) and the early set 1916-1933 (26 coins). There have been several good reference books written on the series. My favorite was written a couple decades ago by Bruce Fox, who helped me assemble a complete gem set in the early 90s.

Finding each date and mint mark in gem condition can be very difficult. The 1919-D is the scarcest date of the entire series in full gem but there are several other dates that are tough to find as well. However you can find all the coins in circulated condition without much difficulty. Once in the mid-90s I was on a business trip to the East Coast. My hotel was connected to a mall and I had a couple hours to kill so I wandered over to check it out. In the middle of the mall some guy had a couple 4×8 tables pushed together covered with a gigantic pile of half dollars. You could pick out any coin you wanted for $3 each. I pulled out over 100 pre-1934 mint marked Walkers over the next two hours! I settled up with him and loaded all the coins into my briefcase. Those were the days before 911 so you could carry anything through the airport without a problem. Years later when I was a coin dealer I would occasionally do a small show where I would have hundreds of circulated Walkers for sale and bought many circ sets as well.

In choice and gem uncirculated the most popular and affordable set is the short set from 1941 – 1947. The key day is the 1941-S, followed by the 1942-S. The secret to assembling a great set is knowing that not all gems are created equally. A fully struck 41-S is very difficult to find and is much scarcer than an average struck coin. Since no distinction is made in the pricing guides between fully struck and average struck Walkers there is a great opportunity in this series for the astute collector. [My definition of a fully struck Walker is: full thumb with knuckles showing and a rounded hand, full head and hair, and full skirt lines.] With some patience a complete short set of fully struck coins can be found. For several years I had a client who was assembling a complete set of fully struck Walkers. He would replace a partially struck MS65 in his collection with a fully struck MS63. He was also compiling striking characteristics on every date and mint mark. His study focused on three areas: the head, the hand and the skirt lines. Since I sold many Walkers for a period of time he would spend hours at my table examining every Walker in my inventory and compiling statistics on each coin. Reviewing his notes was very interesting. He promised to publish his work just as soon as he finished his collection. I hope he hasn’t forgotten that he promised me a copy of his book!

to be continued…

What is a collection?

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Ron GuthNo Comments

There’s a fine difference between an accumulation of coins and a collection of coins.  Perhaps the biggest differences are focus, attention, and intent.  A jar of coins from pocket change is an accumulation.  That same jar of coins, properly sorted and identified, becomes a collection.  The “intent” part follows lines of thinking similar to these: “I’m going to obtain one Proof Set from every year since my birth”; “I’m going to collect as many different 1909-dated world coins as I can”; or, I’m going to put together a collection of Barber Half Dollars”.

The meaningfulness of a collection depends on two things: you, and other people.  A collection that is meaningful to you may not be meaningful to others.  If you’re planning on spending a significant amount of money on your collection, choose wisely, because if you ever decide to sell, it’s comforting to know that your coins will be meaningful (hence, valuable) to potential buyers.

While it is true that no one can dictate to you what you should collect, we can all use a little guidance.

The PCGS Set Registry has been designed with thousands of different “collections”, ranging from single sets to complete series to multi-denominational sets to complete sets of every possible option.  These sets were designed based on the way people collect the coins — not all people, but most people.  If you’re a new collector looking for a challenge, take a tour of the sets listed on the Registry and see what catches your eye.   The most popular sets are those with the largest number of participants.

If nothing catches your eye, the PCGS Set Registry gives you the option of building your own custom set.

In other words, a collection can be anything you choose.

Have fun!