The 1938-D Walking Liberty Half Dollar is considered one of the key dates of the series. Amidst the surrounding issues which have mintages well into the millions, the 1938-D had a mintage of only 491,600. This represents the third lowest for the series behind the 1921 and 1921-D issues.
Around the time of issue, collectors and dealers had been becoming more astute at saving low mintage coins from circulation. However, because of the higher denomination of the coin, less may have been saved.
The 1938-D Walking Liberty Half is one of only a few issues of the series which prices above $100 for well circulated examples in G-4. Premiums for gem graded examples are lower than the other key dates of the series, as more examples managed to survive in higher uncirculated grades.
