1917-S Obverse Mintmark Walking Liberty Half Dollar
Semi-keyThe scarcer of the two 1917-S issues by a wide margin, and one of the harder coins of the early series in mint state. San Francisco struck fewer than a million before the mintmark moved.
Mintage
- Business strikes
- 952,000
- Mint
- San Francisco (S)
- Mintage rank
- 8 of 65
Rank 1 is the lowest business-strike mintage in the series. Mintage is what the Mint produced, not what survives. These circulated as money through two world wars and the Depression, and large quantities were later melted for their silver, none of it recorded by date.
Reading the figure
Among the 24 San Francisco issues in the series it is the 3rd smallest. Of the 21,503,400 struck across all mints in 1917, this issue accounts for 4%. Philadelphia struck 13 times as many that year. The 1917 split ran Philadelphia 12,292,000, San Francisco 5,554,000, Denver 1,940,000, San Francisco 952,000 and Denver 765,400. The series median is 4,094,000, so fewer than half as many of these were struck as a typical date. Series-wide output rose sharply that year: 21,503,400 against 2,130,400 in 1916.
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 15, 2026What certified 1917-S Obverse Mintmark Walking Liberty 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$145
Median of 8 sales
- Lowest
- $59
- Highest
- $289
The 4 most recent sales
- $59PCGS FR2 · Sep 15, 20261917-S PCGS FR02 Obverse Walking Liberty Half Dollar - LOWBALL !!!
- $65ANACS G6 · Sep 10, 20261917 S WALKING LIBERTY HALF DOLLAR OBVERSE ANACS G 6 438
- $169PCGS F12 · Sep 6, 20261917-S Walking Liberty Half Dollar - Obverse Mintmark - PCGS F12
- $289PCGS F12 · Aug 16, 20261917-S Obverse Walking Liberty half, PCGS F12, very tough DavidKahnRareCoins
Seller titles, verbatim. An ended eBay listing stays readable for about 90 days, so older links will expire.
Very Fine to XF
VF20 to XF45$1,200
Median of 3 sales
- Lowest
- $599
- Highest
- $2,035
The 3 most recent sales
- $2,035PCGS XF40 · Aug 6, 20261917 S Walking Liberty Half Dollar PCGS XF-40 Obverse
- $1,200PCGS VF35 · Aug 1, 20261917-S Walking Liberty Half 50c Obverse VF35 PCGS 951705-1
- $599PCGS VF20 · Jul 16, 20261917-S Obverse OBV Walking Liberty Half Dollar 50C PCGS VF20 - Hard To Find Key!
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.
- 1 further qualifying sale fell in a grade band with fewer than 3 sales, which is too few to report a median from, so it is 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.
Documented varieties
Obverse mintmark placement
The S sits on the obverse below the motto. Roughly one 1917-S in six carries the mintmark in this position.
Widely recognised varieties only. The VAM reference catalogs thousands of die marriages across these series; the absence of a variety here does not mean none is documented elsewhere.
Weak strike is not wear. Walking Liberty half dollars are chronically weakly struck, especially the branch-mint issues of 1917-1929. Read the full note on the series page.
What to check before buying
Specific to the 1917-S Obverse Mintmark:
- 1Confirm where the mintmark sits before judging the coin: 1916 and the early 1917 issues carry it on the obverse below IN GOD WE TRUST, everything later carries it on the reverse at lower left. A listing that describes the wrong position is describing a different issue.
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 1917-S Obverse Mintmark 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 1917-S Obverse Mintmark 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 1917-S Obverse Mintmark Walking Liberty half dollars were minted?
The San Francisco Mint struck 952,000 1917-S Obverse Mintmark Walking Liberty half dollars for circulation. That is the 8th lowest business-strike mintage of the 65 date and mintmark combinations in the series.
Is the 1917-S Obverse Mintmark Walking Liberty 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. The scarcer of the two 1917-S issues by a wide margin, and one of the harder coins of the early series in mint state. San Francisco struck fewer than a million before the mintmark moved.
What varieties exist for the 1917-S Obverse Mintmark Walking Liberty half dollar?
Widely recognised varieties for this issue include Obverse mintmark placement. The S sits on the obverse below the motto. Roughly one 1917-S in six carries the mintmark in this position. Variety attributions should appear on the certification label rather than only in a seller's description.
What should I check before buying a 1917-S Obverse Mintmark Walking Liberty 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. Confirm where the mintmark sits before judging the coin: 1916 and the early 1917 issues carry it on the obverse below IN GOD WE TRUST, everything later carries it on the reverse at lower left. A listing that describes the wrong position is describing a different issue.
Related dates
Guides for this coin
All guides →Walking Liberty Set Building
A multi-decade Adolph A. Weinman series with meaningful date, mint, strike, and condition challenges. Build a coin-by-coin research plan.
1 min readMarket ContextJunk Silver vs Graded Silver: How to Think About the Tradeoffs
Pre-1965 US silver coins (junk silver) and certified examples of the same coins respond to different inputs. A framework for researching each one: what to verify, what melt value does and does not cover, and when each is worth a closer look.
1 min readEducationError Coins: Types, Attribution, and Verification
Learn the difference between off-center strikes, doubled dies, mules, broadstrikes, and post-mint damage, plus the records to check before buying.
1 min readBuying GuideHow to Spot a Counterfeit or Doctored Coin
Use weight, dimensions, surfaces, mintmark details, holder inspection, and certification records as screening checks. Learn the warning signs of altered coins and fake slabs.
1 min readMintage sources
Mintage figures are U.S. Mint production records, cross-checked against the published tables below on 2026-07-31. Where those tables disagree, the disagreement is disclosed on the affected page rather than resolved silently.
- CoinMintages.com, Walking Liberty half dollar mintages — Reports the 1917 obverse and reverse mintmark issues separately, and lists proofs by year.
- LandOfCoins, Walking Liberty half dollar mintage — Independent table carrying business strikes and proofs in separate columns. Agrees on all 65 issues.
- Wikipedia, "Walking Liberty half dollar" — No mintage table, but states a series proof total of 74,400, which matches the sum of the seven reported proof figures.
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