I have been unable to find anything on this mint set? Or, am I wrong and these were sold on the secondary market? Does anyone have a possible value besides the condition of the coins inside? There is a P, D and S Kennedy in the set.
What was significant enough in 1982 to justify a special Kennedy set? Getting a jump on the 20th anniversary of his death?
I'm guessing that the gift shops at the mints made these souvenir sets because the mint wasn't issuing their typical uncirculated sets in '82 and '83.
They made 79' and 80' Susan B souvenir sets. But haven't been able to find the Kennedy Half. Says that this one is number 598.
My best guess would be that it’s a privately assembled set. Maybe something that was sold in a magazine or on TV? I’ve heard of the official souvenir sets, but those have all the denominations.
That S looks proof to me. I agree with cinco-d @ddddd that this is likely a privately assembled souvenir set.
I don't collect the Souvenir Sets, but if I find the right ones at the right price, I'll buy them to flip them. The Kennedy Set you listed looks like a secondary market type thing. I bet they were sold in a magazine ad or something similar. The US Mint did not put those together and they don't serialize the envelope like that. That is typically a marketing thing.
Huh, So really not so rare. Still took a the gamble as the Half's are in great condition. Still wondering if I should remove them or if the set is better kept together?
It might still carry a premium. Even some of the privately assembled 82 and 83 sets can sell for a decent amount. I wouldn’t remove it from that packaging for now.
I've not seen it before but doubt it's a mint product. '82-P and D half dollars have a pretty good premium.
It's not so much the lack of popularity that makes me doubt they were US Mint issue as the lack of distribution. In those days sets of this sort were much more likely to be distributed locally rather than nationally. They don't "seem" to have national distribution based only on the fact I've not seen them. The proof half is unaccounted for in the mint report. It's possible they are in the '83 report and I don't remember reading it. It's also possible the mint made them without notation in the mint report. Someone will be able to tell you something about these but I can't. I don't even remember seeing ads for them.
1982 was a strange year since the mint had suspended mint set production and was resuming commemoratives. There was a "gold coin" program that was in progress and these were heady times for the few modern coin collectors. There were several entities issuing private mint sets.