The Mint made a slight alteration to the Franklin half dollar design partway through 1956. The old Type I reverse hub features four feathers on the eagle's left wing, while the new Type II coins show three feathers left of the perch. The former are about 10 times scarcer than their later counterparts, and are major strike and condition rarities at the ultra gem grade level. In fact, they are among the rarest coins in the series after the 1961 Doubled Die Reverse. The Type I Reverse accounts for only about 5% of this issue's mintage of 669,384 pieces (this estimate per Bill Fivaz and J.T. Stanton in the 2012 edition of Cherrypickers' Guide to Rare Die Varieties of United States Coins, Volume II).

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the Spring 2022 Showcase Auction, where it realized $1,920.