1923-S Walking Liberty half dollar a condition rarity
- Published: Aug 14, 2018, 4 AM

Adolph A. Weinman’s Walking Liberty half dollar of 1916 to 1947 has shown enduring popularity. The obverse was reused in 1986 for the American Eagle silver bullion program and a gold .999 fine version was minted in 2016 to celebrate the centennial of the design.
The series has a few condition rarities including the 1923-S Walking Liberty half dollar, which has a relatively high mintage of over two million and becomes scarce in higher circulated grades above Extremely Fine and becomes rare in Mint State grades.
Like other San Francisco Mint half dollars of the era, examples are often found weakly struck. Professional Coin Grading Service has graded just seven in MS-66, two in MS-66+ and a sole MS-67 example that is the finest known.
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A July 29 GreatCollections auction offered a lustrous representative with light lilac toning in a green-label Professional Coin Grading Service MS-66 holder with a green Certified Acceptance Corp. sticker that sold for $27,812.25.
The price was in line with the $26,400 that a comparably graded example with deeper toning brought earlier this year at Heritage’s January Florida United Numismatists auction.
The label was used by PCGS in the early 1990s, meaning that the coin has been untouched for a generation.
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