1917 WALKING LIBERTY HALF MINTMARK LOCATIONS

Mintmark Location Change on 1917 Walking Liberty Half Dollar

Roger Burdette recently posted on an NGC message board "A frequently asked question by collectors is ‘Why was the mintmark moved on 1917 half dollars?' Common answers cover a wide range of speculation, invention, and bluster. The real reason is revealed by these two recently digitized letters." Referring to the letters, the Director of the Mint (Raymond Baker) wrote to the Superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint on April 11, 1917, asking why the mintmark position was changed. The Director answered his own question two days letter, noting that the former Director F. J. H. von Engelken ordered the obverse to reverse change because the obverse position was too prominent and appeared as a defect in the die.

Just for fun we checked ChatGPT to see if AI was responsible for some of the "speculation, invention, and bluster" to which Roger referred. Remarkably, it provided a very detailed, accurate answer, even quoting an early letter from von Engelken that originally ordered the change.

https://proxiblog.org/tag/1917-half-dollar/

Link to National Archives record group 104 (U.S. Mint), entry 235 (letters sent by Director's office) on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/512703

Link to NGC message board thread on the 1917 Walking Liberty Half Dollar:
https://boards.ngccoin.com/topic/440732-mintmark-location-change-on-1917-halves/#comment-9927341

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web