I was doing alittle research. I found out that the 1964 half has 2 differences. One with more detail in the hair I guess. Does anyone have or know of a example of this?
You're right. The 1964 Proof Kennedy halves were struck with 2 distinct obverse and 2 disticnt reverse dies. The first variety showed the 'Accented Hair' obverse and the 'Straight G' reverse. The second variety showed the 'Normal Hair' obverse and the 'Straight G' reverse. The third variety shows the 'Normal Hair' obverse and the 'Crossed G' reverse. The 'Accented Hair' obverse master die actually had some extra hairlines cut into it and Breen says approx 50 - 60 working proof dies were created, striking 100,000 - 120,000 pieces. This happened because Jackie Kennedy wanted more hair detail on Kennedy's image. The 'Normal Hair' obverse used the original design and struck the balance of the 3 million plus pieces. The Type 1 'Straight G' reverse shows the desigeners initials FG with no seraph, while the 'Crossed G' reverse shows a seraph on the G. Also, the first type always shows broken rays behind the stars over the eagles should on the right, while the second type has strengthened rays with no breaks. See the attached photos. Sorry about the brown spots on the 'Accented Hair' photos, it is the only piece I had available to photo. All three of these varieties can still be 'cherry picked' with a little patience. Goodluck!
Also, the 'Accented Hair' comes strong to weak. Since the accented hairs are raised on the die, they were ground down a little each time the die was re-polished. The 1964 proof sets with the 'Accented Hair' half almost always come with a 'Pointed 9' dime. The lower leg of the dime is more pointed. The 'Normal Hair' and a very small percentage of the 'Accented Hair' proof sets come with the 'Blunt 9' dime. Right now, nobody really seems to care that the 'Pointed 9' dime is about 30 times scarcer than the 'Blunt 9', so there is no premium for the scarcer piece. Just something else to keep an eye out for.
learn something new every day ive a few kicking around here gonna check them out, i never knew this at all. is there any diffrence in value due to rarity of the accented hair variety?
Some folks are offering Accented Hair halves starting at around $20 right now, but they can still be cherry picked from proof sets in many dealers stock. The 'big 4' grading services now recognize the Acc Hair variety and the slabbed higher grades and cameos can bring some exciting prices. I think these are going to become really hot in a few years.
I believe that the Accented Hair can also be identified by the missing left base of the "I" in "LIBERTY" on the obverse.
You're right. There are several markers to look for in identifying these dies. The ones I've mentioned are the quick and easy PUP's. (Pick Up Points) I also think that the relief on the later versions is lower than the earlier versions, but I can't really indentify any single thing to confirm this, except that the Acc Hair obv almost always shows weak sideburns and the Straight G reverse almost always shows weakness in the shield, while the later dies almost always show these areas to be well struck.
Thank You very much everyone. I will have to take a closer look. I will post some scans later on. Update, after a better look I do not have a accented hair type. Better luck next time I guess
A couple more items of interest. As far as I know, no examples of the 'Accented Hair' obverse have been found mated with the Type 2 reverse. Chuck Wishon and James Wiles have been watching for these and none have been reported. If you had 100 unsearched 1964 proof sets, you would probably find 1-3 sets with 'Accented Hair' halves, about 5-10 of the transitional 'Normal Hair' obverses paired with the Type 1 reverse, and the rest would be the 'Normal Hair' obverse paired with the Type 2 reverse. Easily, over 90% of these would be the 'Normal Hair' obverse paired with the Type 2 reverse. That being said, I know that I have been actively seeking and buying every 'Accented Hair' proof set I could find for the last 20 years or so, and there are other people that have been doing the same, so fewer and fewer of these are going to be available as time goes by. The reverse varieties are something fairly new and really haven't caught on yet, so the transitional pairing of the 'Normal Hair' obverse and the Type 1 reverse are still out there to be cherry picked. Breen estimates that 100,000 - 120,000 'Accented Hair' pieces exist. In my years of seeking these out, I have found the transitional die pairings show up about 5 times as often as the 'Accented Hair', so my ballpark unofficial best guess is that the transitional die pairings would number 500,000 - 600,000 or so. The 'Blunt 9' dime appears in about 1 in 20 of the 'Accented Hair' proof sets and all the 'Normal Hair' proof sets, and the 'Pointed 9' dime appears in the remainder of the 'Accented Hair' sets. To my knowledge, no 'Pointed 9' dime has been found in a 'Normal Hair' proof set. The mintage of the 'Pointed 9' dime could be about 95,000 - 114,000. Except for Breen's estimate of the number of 'Accented Hair' pieces, all these are my observations/ estimates/ guesses from collecting these sets for so long and in no way should they be taken as gospel. Happy hunting and Happy Holidays!
cdb1950 I wanted to let you know that the photos you posted were great and I saved then for later use!! I have heard and even bid on a few but could never tell how to tell them apart Thanks alot. Speedy BTW I went through a few hundreds dolllars of 1964 halves but didn't have time to look
