1896-S Barber Half Dollar
Semi-keyA moderate San Francisco mintage, common in circulated grades and less so well preserved.
Mintage
- Business strikes
- 1,140,948
- Mint
- San Francisco (S)
- Mintage rank
- 26 of 73
Rank 1 is the lowest business-strike mintage in the series. Mintage is what the Mint produced, not what survives. These circulated as money for decades, and enormous numbers of pre-1965 silver coins were melted once the metal rose above face value, none of it recorded by date.
Reading the figure
Among the 24 San Francisco issues in the series it is the 9th smallest. Of the 3,014,948 struck across all mints in 1896, this issue accounts for 38%. The 1896 split ran San Francisco 1,140,948, Philadelphia 950,000 and New Orleans 924,000. Series-wide output fell that year: 3,014,948 against 4,708,424 in 1895.
Every sentence above is computed from the mintage table on this page, not asserted separately.
Scarcity tier
Semi-key
Assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 is a key date, under 2,500,000 is a semi-key.
This is a reproducible label derived from the mintage column, not a market valuation and not a Coin Curator price opinion. The same thresholds apply to every series on this site. Several dates are far harder or far easier to obtain than their mintage implies; where that is true, it is stated above.
Recent sold prices
Last checked Sep 16, 2026 · most recent sale Sep 16, 2026What certified 1896-S Barber half dollars actually sold for on eBay in the last 90 days, grouped by grade band. Every figure below is a completed sale of a PCGS, NGC or ANACS coin in a straight grade. This is a record of what changed hands, not a price guide, an appraisal, or a prediction of what yours is worth.
Good to Fine
PO1 to F15$115
Median of 10 sales
- Lowest
- $56
- Highest
- $180
The 4 most recent sales
- $60ANACS FR2 · Sep 16, 20261896-S Barber Half Dollar ANACS Fair-2 Key Date 50C San Francisco Mint
- $65ANACS AG3 · Aug 26, 20261896-S Barber Half Dollar ANACS AG3 Key Date Better Date 50C Coin
- $56ANACS AG3 · Aug 24, 20261896-S Barber Half Dollar : ANACS AG3
- $130PCGS AG3 · Aug 22, 20261896-S Barber Half Dollar PCGS AG03 - Only 2,000 survivors across all grades
Seller titles, verbatim. An ended eBay listing stays readable for about 90 days, so older links will expire.
How to read these
- The median is the middle sale after removing outliers. The range is every sale kept, including the outliers, so you can see how wide the market actually is.
- Grade drives most of the difference. A band with three sales tells you far less than a band with thirty, and the count is shown so you can weigh it.
- Sales of coins in “Details”, “Genuine” or cleaned holders are excluded, as are proofs, replicas, lots, and mounted coins. Those sell at prices that would not describe the coin on this page.
- So is any sale priced below what this same date fetches in a lower grade, which is impossible for a real coin and is how a counterfeit in a convincing holder gives itself away.
- 2 further qualifying sales fell in a grade band with fewer than 3 sales, which is too few to report a median from, so they are not shown.
Coin Curator does not grade, authenticate, or appraise coins, and holds no licensed price guide or population data. How this data is collected.
What to check before buying
Nothing about this date calls for a check beyond the ones that apply to any certified coin.
And for any certified coin
Verify the certification number on the grading service’s own lookup rather than from a photograph of the label, match the listing images to the certification record including grade and any variety attribution, look for cleaning, compare the mintmark against published photographs of the genuine issue, and read the return policy before buying. The grading guide covers each of these in full.
Coin Curator does not grade, authenticate, or appraise coins, and holds no licensed price guide or population data. Where this page shows recent sold prices, they are records of completed eBay sales, not a valuation of any particular coin. These are verification steps, not an appraisal.
Verify a certification number
Look a 1896-S certification number up on the service’s own site. A photograph of a label proves nothing.
Each service publishes its own guarantee with conditions and exclusions. Compare PCGS, NGC and ANACS.
Find a 1896-S for sale
Opens an eBay search for this exact date and mint. Coin Curator does not list inventory, hold stock, or set prices; verify each listing, seller, and return policy directly.
Affiliate link: Coin Curator may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Disclosure.
Common questions
How many 1896-S Barber half dollars were minted?
The San Francisco Mint struck 1,140,948 1896-S Barber half dollars for circulation. That is the 26th lowest business-strike mintage of the 73 date and mintmark combinations in the series.
Is the 1896-S Barber half dollar a key date?
Coin Curator labels it a semi-key, assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 struck is a key date and under 2,500,000 is a semi-key. The same thresholds are used for every series on this site, so the tiers are comparable between them. That label describes production, not market value or how hard the coin is to find today. A moderate San Francisco mintage, common in circulated grades and less so well preserved.
What should I check before buying an 1896-S Barber half dollar?
Verify the certification number on the grading service's own lookup page, match the listing photographs to the certification record, check for cleaning, and compare the mintmark shape and position against published photographs of the genuine issue.
Related dates
Guides for this coin
All guides →Barber Coinage: Collecting Dimes, Quarters & Halves
One Liberty-head design across three denominations (1892-1916). Affordable Victorian-era silver as a type set, plus legendary keys like the 1894-S dime and the 1901-S quarter.
1 min readPractical GuideBuilding a US Type Set
Build a U.S. type set by defining the included designs, grade targets, verification rules, and a current coin-by-coin budget.
2 min readBuying GuideMS-63 vs MS-65 vs MS-67: Which Grade to Actually Buy
Adjacent grades can carry very different market evidence. Learn how to compare surfaces, eye appeal, population data, and current records before choosing a grade.
1 min readEducationPCGS vs NGC vs ANACS: Which Grading Service for Coins?
Compare PCGS, NGC, and ANACS by current service terms, holder and guarantee limitations, verification tools, and the needs of the particular coin.
1 min readMintage sources
Mintage figures are U.S. Mint production records, cross-checked against the published tables below on 2026-08-02. Where those tables disagree, the disagreement is disclosed on the affected page rather than resolved silently.
- CoinMintages.com, Barber Half Dollar mintages — Business strikes and proofs listed separately. Used as the business-strike figures here.
- LandOfCoins, Barber Half Dollar mintage — Independent table with proofs in their own column. Agrees with the above on every issue.
- USA Coin Book, Barber Half Dollar — Third table, whose Philadelphia figures add that year's proofs into the total. Used to confirm the convention rather than as a primary source.
Spotted an error? Submit a correction.