This inquiry is directed to the professional sellers on the forum. I am contemplating buying a few BU/GU rolls of 90% silver half dollars. Can any of you give me some current price guidance on Kennedy or Franklin rolls? Any mintages of Franklins that are currently a good value? Are there common mistakes buyers like me should guard against? I want to shop at upcoming shows rather than eBay, but the local shows are rather small and I may need to go online. Thank you for helping me become a wiser buyer. Best wishes to you all.
I'd be glad to help. What the heck is GU? BU Kennedy rolls will go for a little more than melt. BU Franklins are priced by date. Later dates go for a little more than the Kennedy rolls, some earlier dates are close to $2,000 a roll.
All have been picked over Most all bu half dollar rolls have been picked over unless they are from "a little old man that got em at the bank" - and those are hard to come by. I've seen them in Coin World for many times over ask and those were supposed to be original. With silver at 10 times face most of the common ones are priced already at collector value especially the tubed ones. Plus they are so easy to look through with just 20 coins unlike 40 or 50 for other coins. Tough to say if any would be a "good buy" nowadays. If silver was around 6 times face they would be a better value. So if your still interested given the above the late 40's Franklin's if you can get fairly original ones would seem the best value. Ben Peters
Wow, you described me exactly. I have bank rolls of Kennedy halves 64 (2 ea) thru 69, 71 thru 72 (1 ea), all P's with the exception of the 65 which is a D. I really did get them at the bank at the time of issue. However, the 64's are in tubes, I don't remember why I did that, I may have salvaged them from open rolls in the tellers cash drawer. Not really concerned with value at this time.
Thanks for the replies. I suppose I am trying to find out a realistic expectation of cost. I know a roll of these half dollars has about 7.23 oz. of silver and I can do the math v. spot silver. I am not astute enough to judge the accuracy of price guides v. real world. I don't have access to a Gray Sheet. I have checked out closed auction prices on eBay, and will do some more research to get familiar with how the market is working. I just know that the universe is larger than eBay.
That would be rare! recheck the 1965, there was no D minted, it was during the coin shortage, and mintmarks did not return until 1968.
OP asked about mintages, and what years. Regarding Franklins I always check out the 1955. Around two and a half million were made. And also 1955 is the year to check for the "Bugs Bunny" variety.
You are correct. I took that from my database listing without thinking about it. I will correct that typo in my db. Thanks for mentioning that.
