1913-D 50C (Regular Strike)

Ron Guth:

The 1913-D Half Dollar is popular and somewhat scarce in circulated grades because of its small mintage. Fortunately, collectors of the past set aside some very nice examples for the collectors of today. Most Mint State grades are readily available, especially MS63 and MS64. MS65 1913-D Half Dollars are scarce but they appear on the market fairly regularly. Superb examples are very rare. The best example is a single NGC MS67 that sold a few years ago as part of the Eugene Gardner Collection (there as a PCGS MS66).

David Akers: Only 534,000 pieces of this issue were minted, one of the lowest mintage figures in the series. However, despite having such a low mintage figure, something which generally earns an issue a certain amount of respect, there really never has been much acclaim for the 1913-D as a rarity. Of course, that probably is due mainly to the fact that it is relatively common and easily obtained in all mint state grades below Very Choice Uncirculated. However, for some reason, Gems of this issue are extremely difficult to find. As I have mentioned before, many of the Barber Half Dollars issues are underrated in high grade, and what little attention has been paid to the series in the past, largely has been focused on a small number of issues, primarily the mintmarked coins from 1892-1905. For that reason, the rarity of many other issues, especially in Gem condition, has simply been overlooked. Just because a particular issue is readily available in Choice Uncirculated condition does not necessarily mean that it is easy to find in Gem condition. The 1913-D Barber Half Dollar is just such an issue, and there are many analogous examples in almost every series of United States coins.