MEASURED · 13 OCTOBER 2026

How much is a half dollar worth? Walking Liberty, Franklin and every silver half priced

Every US half dollar dated 1964 or earlier is silver, and the silver in one dated 1873 to 1964 is now worth about 44 times the coin’s 50-cent face. Halves dated 1965 to 1970 are 40% silver; those dated 1971 or later are copper and nickel, apart from silver versions made for collectors. Below: what each is worth in metal, how to tell them apart, the Walking Liberty, Franklin and Barber halves, and one thing price lists leave out: for most of the 20th century the silver in a half dollar was worth less than 50 cents.

The short answer

Silver at the London (LBMA) price of $60.865 an ounce on 29 September 2026. The September 2026 average was $64.60, which puts a silver half at $23.37. Halves dated before 1873 hold slightly different amounts of silver: $21.91 to $23.54 at the same price. Copper and nickel at the World Bank’s September 2026 averages. Collector values are not measured here.

Which half dollars are silver

Each half is worth 50 cents as money whatever its metal. Silver figures are the silver alone; a worn coin holds slightly less than a new one. Collector premiums are not included. Every Kennedy half, year by year, is on the Kennedy half dollar value page.

How to tell a silver half dollar in a minute

• Read the date. 1964 or earlier is 90% silver (89.24% on the oldest). 1965 to 1970 is 40% silver. 1971 or later has none, apart from silver versions made for collectors, such as the 40% silver bicentennial half and the silver proofs.
• Look at the edge. A copper-nickel half shows a copper stripe round its edge: the pure copper core between its two copper-nickel layers. A 90% silver half is silver-white all the way across.
• Weigh it. A 90% silver half of 1873 to 1964 weighs 12.50 g, a 40% one 11.5 g and a copper-nickel one 11.34 g. A scale that reads to 0.01 g tells them apart.
• Check the design. Liberty walking, with the US flag over her shoulder and the sun on the horizon, is a Walking Liberty (1916-1947). Benjamin Franklin, with the Liberty Bell on the back, is a Franklin (1948-1963). A head of Liberty facing right, with “Liberty” on a small headband, is a Barber (1892-1915). All three are 90% silver.

How much is a Walking Liberty half dollar worth?

The Walking Liberty half was struck from 1916 to 1947 to a design by Adolph A. Weinman, the sculptor who also designed the “Mercury” dime. No halves were struck in 1922, 1924 to 1926 or 1930 to 1932, so there is no Walking Liberty dated in those years. It is 90% silver and weighs 12.50 g, so a common one is worth its silver: $22.01 at the 29 September 2026 London price. Weinman’s Liberty is still being struck: since 1986 his design has been the front of the American Silver Eagle bullion coin, according to Wikipedia.

Wikipedia notes that many dates are scarce in mint state, particularly the 1921 and 1921-D. Those, and coins in top condition, are collector coins first; a grading service’s price guide, such as PCGS or NGC, lists them. We did not measure collector values. A 1943 half, one of the dates people look up most, is a Walking Liberty: $22.01 of silver today, 16.3¢ in the year it was struck.

How much is a Franklin half dollar worth?

The Franklin half replaced the Walking Liberty at the start of 1948 and was struck until 1963. John R. Sinnock designed it, and it was released on 30 April 1948. It is 90% silver, 12.50 g: $22.01 of silver at the 29 September 2026 price. The small eagle beside the Liberty Bell is there because the Coinage Act of 1873 required an eagle on every coin worth more than a dime.

By mintage the key dates are the 1948, 1949-S, 1953 and 1955. The last year was struck in large numbers: more than 92 million halves dated 1963 at Philadelphia and Denver, proofs included. A sharply struck Franklin can be called “Full Bell Lines”: the seven lines across the bottom of the bell must be fully visible, and so must the three wisps of hair beside Franklin’s ear, according to Wikipedia. In 1964 the Kennedy half replaced it.

Barber and older halves

Charles E. Barber’s half dollar was struck from 1892 to 1915, 12.50 g of 90% silver, so it holds the same $22.01 of silver as a Walking Liberty or Franklin. Its rarest coin is the 1892-O “Micro O”; the other key dates are the 1892-O, 1892-S, 1893-S, 1897-O, 1897-S, 1913, 1914 and 1915, according to Wikipedia. Seated Liberty halves (1839-1891) and the Bust halves before them are priced in the table above by weight and fineness: $21.91 to $23.54 of silver. For a coin that old, check a price guide before selling it for its silver.

There is no Morgan half dollar

Many people look up a “Morgan half dollar” or a “Standing Liberty half dollar”. Neither was made for circulation. The designs of US half dollars made for circulation are Flowing Hair, Draped Bust, Capped Bust, Seated Liberty, Barber, Walking Liberty, Franklin and Kennedy, plus a one-year Statue of Liberty design in 2026 for the 250th anniversary. The Morgan is a silver dollar, struck from 1878 to 1921: its silver is priced in how much is a silver dollar worth? The Standing Liberty is a quarter, struck from 1916 to 1930 to Hermon A. MacNeil’s design and priced in how much is a silver quarter worth? If your half dollar shows Liberty walking, it is a Walking Liberty half.

What its silver was worth each year from 1900 to 1964

For most of the 20th century a silver half dollar held less than 50 cents of silver. By the US Geological Survey’s yearly silver price, its silver was worth less than its face in every year from 1900 to 1966. When the first Walking Liberty halves were struck in 1916, silver averaged $0.67 an ounce and a half’s silver was worth 24.2¢. Its low came in 1932, a year the Mint struck no half dollars: silver averaged $0.28 and a half’s silver was worth 10.1¢. Its highest before the 1960s was 40.5¢, in 1919. In 1963, the last Franklin year, it was 46.3¢. The yearly average first put it above 50 cents in 1967, at 56.0¢, by which time new halves were only 40% silver. The same silver is now worth $22.01, about 91 times its 1916 value.

Silver: the US Geological Survey’s yearly unit value for silver (Data Series 140), converted from dollars a metric ton; most of its values are rounded to three significant figures. Every half in the table now holds $22.01 of silver at the 29 September 2026 London price. Barber halves before 1900 are not in the series. Years with no halves struck are from Wikipedia’s half dollar mintage figures.

When a half dollar’s silver passed 50 cents

A half of 1873 to 1964 holds 0.36169 troy ounces of silver, so its silver is worth 50 cents when silver costs about $1.38 an ounce. The Mint put the same silver in every dollar of face, so the half passed its face on the same dates as the silver quarter and dime. By the World Bank’s monthly averages the first month above was July 1967, when silver averaged $1.60 and a half’s silver was worth 57.9¢. It fell back once: after September 1971 the monthly average dropped below 50 cents again for two months. The last London fix below 50 cents was 3 January 1972, at $1.374: 49.7¢. It has been worth 50 cents or more on every one of the 13,826 London fixes since, and in 709 of the 801 months since January 1960. At the record fix of 29 January 2026, $118.45, a half’s silver was worth $42.84. The month-by-month chart is on the silver quarter page.

Selling or melting silver halves

The federal melting ban, 31 CFR 82.1, covers only five-cent and one-cent coins; half dollars are not in it. Silver halves are bought and sold for their silver, usually quoted per dollar of face value. Two halves, $1 face, hold 0.7234 troy ounces: $44.03 at the 29 September 2026 price. A $10 roll of 20 holds 7.2338 ounces, $440.29, and it takes about 2.76 silver halves to make a troy ounce. A 40% half holds 0.1479 ounces, $9.00. Worn coins hold a little less silver than new ones, so buyers often weigh or discount them.

Measured by US consumer prices, 50 cents in 1964 bought what $5.40 buys in August 2026. The silver in a 1964 half has risen far faster: 44 times face.

The same arithmetic for the other coins is in how much is a penny worth?, how much is a nickel worth?, how much is a dime worth?, how much is a silver quarter worth?, Kennedy half dollar value and how much is a silver dollar worth? (junk silver), and the Eisenhower, Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea dollars in how much is a dollar coin worth?. This page is a measurement, not a forecast or personal advice.

How we measured it

Prices: the LBMA silver price to 29 September 2026; World Bank Pink Sheet monthly averages for silver and for copper and nickel, January 1960 to September 2026; the US Geological Survey’s yearly silver unit value, 1900 to 1964 (Data Series 140), divided by 32,150.7466 troy ounces a metric ton; BLS CPI-U to August 2026. Metal content: halves of 1873-1964 12.50 g at 90%, 0.36169 troy ounces of silver (NGC’s melt-value figure, also used on our Kennedy and silver-dollar pages). The 1792 Act sets the half at 208 grains (13.48 g), exactly twice the quarter’s 104 (Wikipedia). For the later standards before 1873 we found no source that states the half’s weight directly, so those halves are priced at twice the quarter’s: the quarter went to 6.682 g at 90% in the late 1830s and to 6.22 g in 1853 (Wikipedia). 40% halves 11.5 g, 0.1479 ounces, and .999 proofs 12.685 g, 0.4074 ounces, as on our Kennedy page; copper-nickel halves 11.34 g at 8.33% nickel and the rest copper (Wikipedia). Face-value line: each month’s World Bank silver average times 0.36169, compared with 50 cents, with the 1971-1972 dip checked against the unrounded daily London fixes.

Common questions