Having trouble differentiating between 2005 D Kennedy Half Dollar Satin Finish vs Regular strike?

I think it should be noted that not even the TPGs could determine with any certainty if a coin was satin finish or not satin finish, especially in the early years of the program.

Back in 2005 there were a great many reports of satin finish coins being purchased directly from the mint, sent to the TPG in their original packaging, and yet slabbed as being regular circulation coins.

How and why could this happen ? It's quite simple really, because the mint used the satin finish dies for too long and the satin finish wore off. Resulting in coins that were supposed to be satin finish - but were not. And then those coins were packaged up and sold as satin finish coins, even though they had little to no satin finish on them.

It's the same exact thing that used to happen with the annual Proof sets before 1973. A small handful of the coins would be cameo and all the rest were not cameo. And it was all because the dies were used too long.

My point in all this is simple - the coins your questioning may or may not be satin finish. There's really no way to tell. But if you cannot tell, then you pretty much have to assume they are not.

 

Coins that actually have the satin finish look distinctly different than business strikes do. But describing that "look" is pretty hard to do with words, at least in a way that would actually help somebody. It's even hard to do with pictures because you can almost never trust that a picture of a coin will look like the coin does when viewed in hand.

So, what to do ? Go to a coin shop, ask to see some coins that do have the satin finish. Then ask to see some regular business strikes from the same date. Look at them side by side - then you should know.

And like I said before, if you're looking at a coin and wondering if it is satin or not - well, the simple fact that you have to wonder at all means you should just assume they are not and let it go at that.