Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 30, 2016
The Franklin half dollar coin was struck by the United States Mint from 1948 to 1963. It pictures Founding Father Benjamin Franklin on the obverse, with the Liberty Bell and a small eagle on the reverse. Produced in 90 percent silver with a reeded edge, the coin was struck at the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints. Mint director Nellie Tayloe Ross had long admired Franklin, and asked the Mint's chief engraver, John Sinnock, to design the coin; his initials appear on the obverse, but some mistook them for the initials of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. When Ross submitted the designs to the Commission of Fine Arts, they disliked the small eagle and felt that depicting the crack in the Liberty Bell would expose the coinage to jokes and ridicule; nevertheless, the Mint proceeded with Sinnock's designs. Beginning in 1964 the coin was replaced by the Kennedy half dollar, issued in honor of the assassinated President, John F. Kennedy. Though the coin is still legal tender, its face value is greatly exceeded by its value to collectors or as silver. (Full article...)