The 1938-D is the register's best lesson that a mintage is a birth certificate, not a census. Only 491,600 were struck, the lowest figure of the series' common late era and one of only six sub-million entries on the whole roster. But by 1938 the hobby was paying attention: dealers and collectors pulled the coin by the roll the moment it appeared, so uncirculated 1938-Ds survive in quantities the 1921 keys can only dream of.
The result is the strange price shape collectors know: a coin genuinely rare by mintage, merely scarce in the market, affordable in mint state and only expensive at the very top of the grading scale. Its cousin in this lesson is the 1931-S Buffalo nickel, hoarded the same way for the same reason, and the pair make the point better than any essay: scarcity is mintage minus saving, and the register only records the first half.
A famous low mintage plus abundant survivors equals a counterfeiter's favorite arithmetic: the added-D 1938 is a classic American alteration, built from the plentiful Philadelphia coin. The mintmark deserves more scrutiny than the price would suggest.
| Issue | Mint | Mintage |
|---|---|---|
| 1938 Walking Liberty Half Dollar | Philadelphia | 4,110,000 |
| 1938-D Walking Liberty Half Dollar | Denver | 491,600 |
Mintage figures: United States Mint (Annual Report of the Director of the Mint), Royal Canadian Mint records, and — for the 1935 banknote issue — Bank of Canada printage records as published in the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money, cross-checked across independent published references. Specifications: United States Mint coin specifications.