1915-S Barber Half Dollar

Semi-key

A San Francisco issue from the final year of the Barber half dollar.

Mintage

Business strikes: 1,604,000
Mint: San Francisco (S)
Mintage rank: 37 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 14th smallest. Of the 2,912,400 struck across all mints in 1915, this issue accounts for 55%. That is 12 times the Philadelphia figure for the same year. The 1915 split ran San Francisco 1,604,000, Denver 1,170,400 and Philadelphia 138,000. Series-wide output rose sharply that year: 2,912,400 against 1,116,230 in 1914.

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.

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 publishes no price or population data. These are verification steps, not a valuation.

Verify a certification number

Look a 1915-Scertification number up on the service’s own site. A photograph of a label proves nothing.

PCGS cert lookup NGC cert lookup ANACS cert lookup

Each service publishes its own guarantee with conditions and exclusions. Compare PCGS, NGC and ANACS.

Find a 1915-S for sale

Opens an eBay search for this exact date and mint. Coin Curator does not list inventory, hold stock, or quote prices; verify each listing, seller, and return policy directly.

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Common questions

How many 1915-S Barber half dollars were minted?

The San Francisco Mint struck 1,604,000 1915-S Barber half dollars for circulation. That is the 37th lowest business-strike mintage of the 73 date and mintmark combinations in the series.

Is the 1915-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 San Francisco issue from the final year of the Barber half dollar.

What should I check before buying a 1915-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.

Guides for this coin

All guides →

Vintage Guide

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 read Practical Guide

Building 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 read Buying Guide

MS-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 read Education

PCGS 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 read

Mintage 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.

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