1919 Walking Liberty Half Dollar

1919 Walking Liberty half dollars are downright scarce coins by any measure. Simply put, they are among the toughest dates in the Walking Liberty half series – as a year, second only to 1921 – and are vied for by date-and-mintmark collectors who aim to complete Walking Liberty collections.

What makes 1919 Walking Liberty halves are difficult for coin collectors? For one, these coins were originally minted in very small numbers, which will be detailed below. Second, many of these coins have been lost to melting, damage, and time, which further depleted available pieces from the small original output. Third, and this applies mainly to those who seek higher-grade specimens, very few 1919 Walking Liberty half dollars were saved. Consider, for a moment, that 50 cents was a very large fraction of a typical person’s daily wage in 1919.

The following provides a breakdown of 1919 Walking Liberty half dollar mintages and values for specimens in Good-4:

• 1919, 962,000 minted; $30 in Good-4

• 1919-D, 1,165,000; $30

• 1919-S, 1,552,000; $25

The Good-4 values above don’t tell the whole story about this date, however. In XF-40, prices jump to more than $550 for the 1919, $750 for the 1919-D, and $850 for the 1919-S. No matter the grade of your 1919 Walking Liberty half dollar, if it is damage free and offers great eye appeal, you’re holding a treasure that will surely add value to your coin collection.