Featured An Introduction to the Kennedy Half Dollar – Part 1

Greetings fellow shut-ins!

My wife is really depressed. Easter is usually the time when the family got together. Not this year. My father in law is locked down in a retirement facility, and everyone else is at home.

So it's time for another archives articel.


November 22, 1963, “A day that will live in infamy.” For many Americans that phrase, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt used to describe the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, aptly applied to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the wake of that awful event, streets and boulevards were renamed, state and federal buildings were rededicated and even Cape Canaveral was briefly changed to Cape Kennedy. Of equal significance was a change in our nation’s coinage that would have a profound effect upon the half dollar as circulating coin.

Plans for a new Kennedy coin were in the works only days after the assassination. By November 27 it had been determined that a Kennedy design would replace the Benjamin Franklin half dollar. Government officials considered changing the design of the quarter, half dollar or silver dollar, but the half dollar was chosen in part because Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy opposed displacing the Washington Quarter.

The Franklin Half Dollar had been in production for only 16 years, which met that it took an act of Congress to change the design. According to the statutes coin designs could be changed by the order of the Treasury without congressional authorization after 25 years. Although Congress had not passed the required legislation, chief mint engraver, Gilroy Roberts, and assistant engraver, Frank Gasparro, set to work on the new coin. Roberts would design the obverse and Gasparro was assigned to do the reverse.



The 1961 Presidential Medal in Silver.


Both men faced a formidable task. In the days before computer generated coin designs and program driven laser die production techniques, Roberts and Gasparro had to complete what had been several months’ work in four weeks. To streamline the project, they decided to use design elements from the 1961 Kennedy presidential medal. The bust of the president, without a coat and tie, appeared on the obverse and the presidential seal, which featured a heraldic eagle, dominated the reverse.

By mid December Roberts and Gasparro had produced intermediate sized 5 inch models of the coin and trial strikes of the piece were produced shortly there after. Upon reviewing the designs, Mrs. Kennedy was favorably impressed, but she commented that part of the hair should have been less pronounced while other areas needed more accents.

Roberts made the changes to the 5 inch model, but not before a few Proof coin dies had been created with the original design. About 3% of the 1964 Proof Kennedy half dollars display this original artwork which collectors call the “accented hair variety.” These unusual half dollars were the first to be struck when Proof coin production began on January 2, 1964.



The 1964 Proof Accented Hair variety of the JFK half dollar. Sorry, but I don't have a great photo of this.

By the end January the Denver mint began to produce business strike Kennedy half dollars. The following week the Philadelphia mint was on line. The demand for new coins was brisk as many citizens wanted them as keepsakes. Despite the fact that both mints ran overtime to produce a record number of almost 430 million 1964 half dollars, the coins were almost never seen in circulation.



The 1964-D JFK half had the mint mark on the reverse for the only time. I think that this coin is kind of neat, but most collectors are not that interested in it.

The Philadelphia mint also produced a record number of almost 4 million Proof sets. Many of these sets went to non-collectors who in some instances cut out the half dollar and spent the other coins. One coin dealer I knew in Philadelphia told me he was finding Proof dimes and quarters in change.

Demand for the 1964 Proof sets was strong. At one point the retail price reached $35.00 which was a very high price for a new Proof set at that time. Some dealers quietly warned their clients that the prices would come down, but demand remained strong for several months.

As the year continued banks and businesses began to experience shortages of coins in circulation. These shortages extended beyond the new half dollars to dimes, quarters and even cents and nickels. Treasury officials were quick to blame coin collectors. At first they urged collectors to stop taking coins from circulation, and then they began to threatened sanctions against collectors and dealers. Nevada senator Alan Bible introduced a bill in Congress that would have seriously crippled the coin collecting hobby. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and the measure never came up for a vote.

The real culprits for the coin shortage were speculators who perceived that the price of silver was going to rise above $1.29 an ounce. At that level the melt value of every dime, quarter and half dollar would exceed its face value. The speculators’ prognostications about the price of silver would prove to be true, but it would be a few years before those predictions became reality.
In response treasury officials initiated actions that they hoped would discourage coin collectors. The dates were frozen on all coins, and mint marks were dropped as well. The mint also suspended the production of Proof coins. In the mean time Congress passed legislation that would change the nation’s coinage forever.



The 1965 Special Mint Set had only one silver coin, the 40% silver clad 1965 Kennedy Half Dollar.

The Coinage Act of 1965 removed all of the silver from the dime and quarter and reduced silver content of the half dollar from 90% to 40%. The new silver clad half dollar had obverse and reverse layers that were composed of 80% silver and 20% copper that were bonded to core of 80% copper and 20% silver. This unusual alloy was a compromise to the congressional delegations from the mining states to maintain the traditional government presence in the silver market.

By 1965 mint was still producing 90% silver coins dated 1964, and clad coins that bore the current year’s date. The anti-collector mood had eased a bit at the mint as the system began to produce the Special Mint Sets. The Special Mint Set coins were inferior to the coins in the old Proof sets, and contained only one silver coin. Yet the price was raised from $2.10 to $4.00. Despite that fact that these sets were struck at the recently reopened San Francisco mint, they did not have the familiar and popular “S” mint mark.

By 1966 treasury officials had lifted the date freeze, and coinage operations were starting to get back to normal. Still more changes lay ahead for the Kennedy half dollar, which would continue to be a source of interest and speculation to many in the general public.

More to come tomorrow or the next day.

 

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Nice write up. I hope you don't mind me posting a picture I took yesterday at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn NY.

 

Great write up!

My 1964 AH Kennedy (NGC PF67CAM)





PS: I can’t believe I posted a higher grade coin than John (probably for the first and last time) :-D

 

Very few of the 1964 Kennedy's are known in prooflike condition, but they do exist. Here's mine in semi-prooflike, graded NGC MS-64*

 

You're style and information reminds me of RWB. Great job, John !

 

@johnmilton - have you ever done a write up on the Eisenhower Dollar?

 

Probably not, but I could put something together. Since I’m house-bound, it’s no like I have a lot of distractions. Trouble is, I am to go-to guy for varieties. I am more into the history.

 

Great write up John! I am an avid Kennedy collector and enjoyed your article very much. Here is an NGC PF64 Accented Hair I bought from our local dealer last month. Looking forward to you next installment.

 

It's out there under "Part 2."

 

These writeups take time and I/we certainly appreciate your effort and expense in typing them up, John !!

 

I have written most of these for my local club over the years. The second part of the Kennedy Half Dollar had to be revised and extended because I wrote that before 2014. What takes the time is working the pictures into the piece. Thanks to the moderators for having the thumbnails come up, instead of the file names, when you are posting pictures. That makes it so much easier!

Since so many people are stuck at home these days, I figure that it makes sense to post these pieces. Some people have suggested through the years that I publish book, but this has been done before so I don't know how popular it would be.

 

Well, I'll buy it.

I'm reading Roger Burdette's book on Saint Gaudens Double Eagles. Mowing down about 20-30 pages a day....hope to finish by the end of April. Fantastic book....only peave is that for the $$$ I paid it should be hardcover.

 

Seems like most of the Heritage published books are softcover. I have the Amato reference on the 1796-1797 half dollars. Absolutely amazing research, but its softcover.

I suspect they use the same machines that print the auction catalogues. It's what they have, so its what they use. It doesn't bother me all that much - I'm paying for the work that went into it and the knowledge I get, not for a fancy cover.

I keep hearing you rave about that book. I might have to get it, even though I don't collect St. Gaudens.

 

Trial strikes of the new half dollar were produced and were immediately delivered to Miss Adams, Director of the US Mint, in Washington, D.C. on December 15, 1963.

Chief Engraver of the US Mint, Gilroy Roberts along with Secretary of the Treasury, (Dillon) met with Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy on December 17, 1963, the same date that Congress considered and passed the legislation in the House of Representatives for the authorization of the new design.

From Gilroy Robert’s REMINISCENCE ON THE CREATION OF THE KENNEDY HALF DOLLAR, dated April 29, 1964:

“Mrs. Kennedy was favorably impressed with the design on both sides of the coin but felt it would be an improvement if the part in the hair, on the portrait, was less pronounced and more accents were added.” (emphasis added)

“Mrs. Kennedy’s suggestions were carried out on the intermediate size and another trial die was made for the obverse. New trial strikes were prepared. Secretary of the Treasury Dillon wanted to see this second trial piece and on December 27th, I flew to West Palm Beach where the Secretary and Mrs. Dillon inspected the strikes. They both felt that Mrs. Kennedy’s wishes had been complied with and in their opinion, the coin was very handsome. It was decided to proceed with tooling up for production.”

“Time was fast running out and if we did not have working dies for Proof Half Dollars, the coiner would be unable to start Proof coin production which meant that up until the time dies were available some thirty or fifty employees would be without work. Extreme pressure was exerted to push this program through and by January 2, 1964, Kennedy Half Dollar Proof dies were delivered and our tremendous Proof coin production could get started.”

Gilroy Roberts wrote his statement within months of when the coin was designed. Jacqueline Kennedy wanted the part in the hair less pronounced, not just part of the hair, with more accents added.

Proof dies were not created until the second trial strikes showing Mrs. Kennedy’s wishes were created and shown to Secretary of the Treasury Dillon (with the part in the hair less pronounced and more accents added).

The myth that Jacqueline Kennedy wanted the accents removed is in direct contradiction to the written record. Why was the design chanced from the accented hair to the normal hair is anyone’s guess? I have to wonder if it is something simple like the broken serif on the I in LIBERTY was on the master hub and when they made a new hub to correct it they just forgot to add the wishes that Mrs. Kennedy wanted back onto it.

The next item is the 1965 Special Mint Sets were not produced in 1965 but in the spring of 1966.

The only other point is the mintmark on the reverse of the coin. This has happened twice in the series, first with the 1964-D and again with the 2014-W gold Kennedy half dollar.

 

I didn't know they published other books, I thought that was the only one. Thanks, I'll look for them.

Cover is a bit "glossier" but the internal pages look about the same. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same publisher.

For the $$$ I paid, I really thought it would be hardcover. It would make it easier to hold, too.

It's a great book, just pricey. If you want a book with bigger pictures and less words, then the sister book -- published earlier -- on The Coinage of ASG by the Philip Morse Collection....might be more worth it.

I might get that one too just for the bigger pictures. Aside from the close-up of coins, the photos in the Burdette Saints book are just a bit bigger than those in the Akers book which is much smaller. I thought there would be full-page photos of the coins and so far (Page 167)...there aren't.

But again, I think the rest of the book is so good I can live without the full-page pics and without hardcover.

 

Sad that this went to Rick Tomaska's TV show, but the item itself is pretty dang cool: https://coinweek.com/modern-coins/n...ennedy-half-dollars-for-rare-collectibles-tv/

 

Thanks for posting this story Physics. I wonder how they graded at NGC. Seems like the fellow opening the bag and pulling out the coins would have been more careful to avoid further damaging the coins. But that’s just me. Any idea when RCTV will sell these?

 

They are listed as a separate line on the census. Only 140 are listed - which probably implies the rest of them are in special holders labelled as "UNC" because they didn't make the 65 grade. Looks to be a fairly generic group, 136 in 65, 4 in 66: https://www.ngccoin.com/census/united-states/half-dollars/44/varieties/16707/

With Tomaska marketing the hell out of them, of course, I'm sure he'll have those 65's listed for many multiples of what they are worth.

 

Gotcha, thanks. Too bad they didn’t fare so well as a group. Yes, I’m sure they will be over priced. Rick’s show is on tonight at 7 CT on UVerse Channel 196. Think I’ll record it and see if he is selling them already.

 

My experience with the 1964 JFK Half Dollars that came to the banks was that a lot of them were hacked up. The first one I received was marked up enough to be no better than MS-63, maybe MS-62. Finding one with smooth, almost mark-free surfaces was hard.

The Denver Mint was noted for lower quality coins in the early 1960s. If you look at the Gray Sheet, you will see some huge jumps in price for all Franklin Half Dollars from the the MS-64 to 65 grades, including the Philadelphia coins.

Years ago I opened a couple of rolls of 1962-D Franklin Half dollars. Among the 40 coins, there were only a couple pieces that I would have called MS-63 or 64. All the rest were lower. Part of the problem was that they were careless made. The coins were all Mint State, but the strikes were such that the coins never were Gem Mint States, from the time they left the dies.