Collecting Kennedy Half Dollar Coins: A Beginner’s Guide

Kennedy Half Dollar Coins is a very interesting series for any type of collector to embark on due to the following reasons: As far as I am concerned, it is good for a beginner collector and, at the same time, has some difficult tasks for intermediate and advanced collectors. Kennedy half dollars: known types of error coins, varieties, collectors’ possibilities I have introduced several types of Kennedy half dollars, errors and varieties that can be met by all collectors.

Getting Started Collecting Kennedy Half Dollars Coins

Kennedy half dollars coins are relatively easy to acquire and amass in a set; this is easy and cheap. Business strike coins are the most popular among collectors because most collectors work on a collection that contains a date and mint mark set of the coins. The intermediate collectors will also collect proof coins. Super collectors aim at business strikes, proof strikes, special strikes—the 1998 Silver Matte Finish Proof—and famous errors and varieties.

There are some of the sub-types of Kennedy half-dollars you will need to familiarize yourself with if you are going to be a collector.

Also Read: 10 Valuable Kennedy Half Dollar Coins Every Collector Should Know

Silver Coinage (90% Silver)

Because of a spike in the price of silver in the early part of the following year, 1964, there was only one 90% silver business-strike half dollar that year and that was the Kennedy half dollar. The composition was 90% silver, and, on the other hand, United States citizens‘ tears over the loss of their young president in 1963 helped save a lot of these coins as souvenirs of President Kennedy.

Silver Clad Coinage (40% Silver)

In 1965, the United States Mint transitioned into producing more of the Kennedy half dollars with a mere 40% silver. The outer layers consisted of a combination of 80% silver and 20% copper, while the inner layer was made of 20.9% silver and 79.1% copper. Special 40% silver Kennedy half dollars were issued for circulation by the Mint through 1970.

Special Mint Set (SMS) Strikes

Due to the scarcity of circulation strike coins in the United States between 1965 and 1967, the mint halted the minting of proof strike coins for collectors and introduced the Special Mint Sets. These sets included coins that were produced by using special dies on a group of coinage presses that used more pressure in the minting of the coins. And even if it is not intended to be mistaken for proof coins, some of the varieties bear a contrast where devices were brought out while the fields had to mirror-finish.

Copper-Nickel Clad Coinage

In 1971, it was replaced with the current clad, which is produced from copper-nickel. The plating layers are constructed of 75% copper and 25% nickel and are based on a core of pure copper. Their copper-nickel-clad composition meant that the last circulating coin to contain this amount of silver in the United States was displaced.

1976 Bicentennial Coinage

In order to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the formation of the United States of America, Congress authorized the production of a Kennedy half-dollar circulation strike. Since the public demand could come to an absolute end during 1975, there were no Kennedy half dollars dated 1975 in circulation because the mint processed the 1776–1976 dual-dated bicentennial half dollars a year in advance. It was released in this collector version as a business strike and proof number minted on 40% silver-clad planchets in the United States Mint.

Types of 1776- 1976 Kennedy Half Dollars Produced

Proof Silver Clad Coinage

The United States Mint assembled a special mint set of Proof Kennedy half-dollar collector coins from 1964 but did not include them in 1965, 1966, 1967, or 1975. Selected of the silver-clad planchet coins were minted as ‘Proof’ pieces in 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1976. These coins could only be obtained individually as presentation coins in a set of proof coins for the calendar year.

Also Read: These 6 coins from the year 2000 are worth up to $2,000

Proof Copper-Nickel-Clad

On copper-nickel planchets, proof Kennedy half dollars were struck by the United States Mint in 1971. Each of these collector coins was available exclusively in proof sets.

Proof Silver Kennedy Coins

The mint was also making Proof Kennedy half dollars for collectors in 1964 with the legislatively mandated 90% silver content. In 1992, the mint developed a series of coins that targeted coin collectors directly. These special proof coins were produced with 90% silver and were not marketed in circulation but could only be obtained by collectors who would order a “Silver Premier Proof Set.”

Proof Silver Matte Finish

In 1998, to celebrate the RFK, the U.S. Mint produced a special series of collector’s coins that featured the image of Robert F. Kennedy. The set incorporated the RFK Commemorative Silver Dollar and also a specially minted Proof Kennedy half dollar with the Proof Matt Satin Finish. Collectors will pay a good price for an example of this rare coin, given that the mint produced just 63,000 of the coins at the San Francisco mint.

50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Uncirculated Coin Set

These specially minted, uncirculated planchets in this two-coin set were intended to mark the Kennedy half-dollar that was first minted in 1964. This collection consists of two one-half dollars of the 2014 Kennedy’s issue in clad copper-nickel; both have their finish preserved as uncirculated, one from the Philadelphia mint and the other from the Denver mint. These designs borrowed the high-relief portrait that is on the 1964 copper coinage.

50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Silver Coin Collection

The U. S. Mint released a four-coin set of silver half dollars, each with a different finish. This set contained an unmodified high-relief obverse based on the die, which was hand-sculpted by US Mint Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts in 1963.

50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Proof Coin

The United States Mint also released a special silver-proof bullion coin with a composition of 99.99% fine gold to remember the half dollar’s 50th year of issue. A minor evolution of the design has been made over the last fifty years in order to better accommodate high-capacity coin presses. This inaugural anniversary proof coin is struck with the original 1964 obverse die, which includes the high relief hand-sculpted in original detail by United States Mint Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts.

Note: Some people regard it as a ‘bullion’ issue and we do not include it in the Kennedy half-dollar collection.

Keys to Collecting Kennedy Half Dollars

New collectors are also in a good position to start collecting circulated Kennedy half dollars by approaching your local bank and getting rolls of them at face value. Alas, the production of business strikes for circulation ceased at the mint in 2002. It now only manufactures them for release into collector sets. You can still, however, buy 2002 and later-dated coins from your local coin dealers for a fraction of their face value. Some of the beginner series coins are 1964 and 1964-D, although the price is influenced by the cost of silver and 1970-D since it was produced in low mintage and in the mint sets only.

This will challenge intermediate collectors who will want to build a collection of uncirculated Kennedy half dollars, while advanced collectors will want to pull together a set of a much broader range with consideration to classification, including uncirculated, proof coins, special strikes, error coins and variety types. Many of them will be available as bullion pieces and have to be purchased from a coin dealer or through an online auction. The key date coins are the 1995-S silver proof and the 1998-S silver matte finish proof, which I have priced around $200.

Some of the errors and variations of the Kennedy Half Dollar include the following: Superior collectors will also wish to include these coins in their collection piles.

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