Quarters and halves
Walking Liberty half dollar value: silver and scarcity
Type the date and pick the mint letter: the tool gives the number struck that year at that mint, the metal and the silver value now.
Walking Liberty and Franklin halves by year
Metal value of one 1938 coin
$19.53
| Struck at this mint | 491,620 |
| Mintage band | Very low mintage (under 1 million) |
| Metal | 90% silver half dollar |
| Mint mark on the coin | D |
Excludes 22,000 commemorative coins struck the same year at this mint. At silver $53.94 per troy oz (last price read).
A Walking Liberty half dollar is a 90% silver coin of 12.50 grams holding 0.3617 troy ounce of pure silver, about $19.53 at the price read on October 27, 2026. That is its floor whatever its date. The design, Liberty striding toward the sun with the flag over her shoulders, was struck from 1916 to 1947 and replaced by the Franklin half in 1948, which kept the same weight and silver until 1963. What separates one coin from another is the number struck and the condition. The Bureau of the Mint tables show 24,207,412 halves made at Philadelphia in 1941 and 508,000 at San Francisco in 1916. Two counting traps apply: 1916 mixes the last Barber halves with the first Walking Liberty ones, and the silver tables count commemorative halves with the circulating coins, so this site subtracts the commemoratives listed in the Mint’s own table of commemorative coinage before showing a figure.
Is my coin silver?
Quarter dated 1965
no silver
| Metal | Copper-nickel clad quarter |
| Pure silver | none |
| Metal value | 8.3¢ |
Only the collector value of a scarce date or variety can lift it above face value.
Mintages, metals and prices read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
A 90% silver coin from 1916 to 1963
The Walking Liberty half replaced the Barber half in 1916 and gave way to the Franklin half in 1948, which in turn gave way to the Kennedy half in 1964, as the Mint’s history of circulating coins recounts. Through all three designs until 1964 the half dollar kept the same alloy and weight: 12.50 grams of 90% silver and 10% copper, recorded in the Bureau of the Mint tables. Every coin of these series is therefore worth at least $19.53 in silver at $53.94 an ounce, the price from gold-api.com read on October 27, 2026.
The quick tool below tells you, for any denomination and year, whether a coin is silver and how much it holds. It is handy when a bag of old halves also contains 40% Kennedy halves or clad coins.
Is my coin silver?
Quarter dated 1965
no silver
| Metal | Copper-nickel clad quarter |
| Pure silver | none |
| Metal value | 8.3¢ |
Only the collector value of a scarce date or variety can lift it above face value.
Reading the Mint tables for half dollars
The Bureau of the Mint counted pieces made in each calendar year, not coins of each design. For half dollars that has two effects. In 1916 the year total mixes Barber and Walking Liberty halves. In many years from 1918 to 1954 it also includes commemorative half dollars, struck for anniversaries and sold to collectors above face value. Those are listed apart in the same book, in its table of annual commemorative coinage, so this site subtracts them: for 1936, for instance, the Philadelphia figure loses 346,000 commemoratives. Where nothing remains but a few dozen assay pieces, as for Philadelphia from 1922 to 1928, Denver in 1933 or San Francisco in 1938, the tool says that no regular half of that date and mint was struck.
The war years show the scale of Walking Liberty production at its peak:
| Year | Philadelphia | Denver | San Francisco |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 | 24,207,412 | 11,248,400 | 8,098,000 |
| 1942 | 47,839,120 | 10,973,800 | 12,708,000 |
| 1943 | 53,190,000 | 11,346,000 | 13,450,000 |
| 1944 | 28,206,000 | 9,769,000 | 8,904,000 |
| 1945 | 31,502,000 | 9,966,800 | 10,156,000 |
Compare those tens of millions with the first year of the design, when San Francisco struck 508,000 halves and Denver 1,014,400, all designs together. The early dates and the branch-mint coins of the 1910s and 1920s are where scarce Walking Liberty halves are found.
Where the mint mark hides
The Mint’s page on mint marks lists the D and S letters for these years. On the first Walking Liberty halves the letter sits on the front, under the motto; during 1917 it moved to the back, near the rim at the lower left. Franklin halves carry it on the back, above the Liberty Bell beam. No letter, on any of these coins, means Philadelphia.
Condition comes first
Liberty’s hand, her head and the lines of her skirt are the high points of the design, and they wear smooth quickly. A coin where those details remain is far less common than one where they have gone, which is why two coins of the same date can mean very different things to a collector. The grading guide explains how wear is read. This site does not publish collector prices: no official or freely licensed source gives them, so it shows the number struck and the silver instead.
For a lot of mixed silver coins, the junk silver page counts the silver by face value, and the Kennedy half page covers the halves that came after.