1963 Half Dollar Error - 1963 50C Mint Error NGC MS67 RB. This spectacular, rare 1963 Half Dollar Error is a wrong planchet coin struck with a reverse mirror brockage. Weighing 3 grams, the piece is close enough to the 3.11 that is standard for the Lincoln cent of 1963. It is a lustrous Red and Brown piece with significant amounts of mint red on the obverse, less so on the reverse.

The strike is sharp on the obverse with full details on the lines of Franklins lower hair. The surfaces are original and clean with no abrasions visible without magnification. Because of the size difference between a cent and a half dollar, many of the obverse details are missing. We do not have the top of Franklins head or the word LIBERTY. We see just the top of the N in IN and are missing the lower parts of GOD. The same is true for TRUST with more of the letters missing as we move from the bottom upward. On the reverse we have an enlarge mirror image of the obverse. None of the legends remain and only the 196 of the date are strong. The 3 is visible at the left edge of the coin.

A wrong planchet error takes place when a planchet from one denomination is fed into a coining press for another denomination. In this case, a Lincoln cent planchet was accidently fed into a press that was set up for coining Franklin halves. The weight of the coin is correct for the Lincoln cent.

A brockage takes place when a struck coin is not properly ejected from the coining chamber and remains either loose or as a reverse die cap. The next planchet receives a correct impression from the obverse die and incuse mirror-image strike on its reverse. In this case, if the Lincoln cent planchet were not in the coining chamber, the next half dollar would have been a mirror-image strike as the reverse of a regular half dollar coin.

Franklin Half dollars were made from 1948 to 1963. They were designed by John R.Sinnock, the U.S. Mint chief engraver. In 1942 Sinnock developed a design for a new silver half-dime, which was intended to replace the five cent nickel coin because nickel was a war time strategic metal. Instead the War Nickels were made of a copper-silver-manganese alloy. The half-dime concept was not accepted for regular coinage, but the design eventually was. The obverse showed a bust of Benjamin Franklin, similar to the one used for the half dollar. The reverse had a Liberty Bell, an eagle, an ear of corn, and a V with oak leaves nearby.

When the decision was made to introduce a new design for the half dollar, Sinnock borrowed heavily from his earlier works. The obverse came from the half-dime concept, and the reverse from the reverse of the Sesquicentennial of American Independence Half Dollar of 1926, which was also designed by Sinnock. This design was taken from a sketch by artist John Fredric Lewis; however, Sinnock did not give him credit for it.

The coin shows a close portrait of Franklin in profile facing right, which was modeled after a bust of him by the famous sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. Above his head is LIBERTY, and IN GOD WE TRUST is below. The date is in the right field between his chin and chest. The reverse shows a large Liberty Bell showing its crack. UNITED STATES oF AMERICA is in an arc above, and the denomination written as HALF DOLLAR is below. To the left of the bell is the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM in small letters balanced by a small eagle, which was not part of the original design, to the right. The coin was made in 90 percent silver and has a reeded edge.

Nellie Tayloe Ross, the Mint Director, had much admired Benjamin Franklin and wanted him to be shown on a circulating coin. She told Sinnock to prepare designs for the half dollar. Unfortunately he died before the process was completed, and Gilroy Roberts, his assistant and successor finished the work, which included adding the eagle to the reverse. The Commission of Fine Arts disapproved of the diminutive eagle and felt that showing the crack in the Liberty Bell would be a source of ridicule. Despite this disapproval, the Mint followed Sinnocks designs.

This coin is exceptionally rare because it combines two mint errors on one piece. Each is a rare error coin in its own right. According to Brown, Camire, and Weinberg in 100 Greatest U.S. Error Coins, approximately 12 Franklin halves are known to have been struck on cent planchets, but these are regular strikes not brockages. No doubt the present piece is unique because of its superb condition and the combination of errors.