I am a Canadian collector however I have aquired a sudden love for Kennedy 1/2 dollars. I saw a MS64 1964 at my regular dealer a couple weeks back, for 5 bucks, and then at a flea market this past weekend I aquired about another 10 of various dates and mint marks after that date. With minimum dings in them, @ 1.50 a peace, it seemed like a good deal. (Still waiting for my Red Book to be delivered by Amazon.com, but i do know I'll never get rich off them) Needless to say they are not silver. Like I usually do, I updated my spreadsheet with my aquisitions, and in doing so, I am amazed to see how the number of these that were minted dropped off signifigantly after 2001. I would like to ask the experts, can you advise why this happened? Please look at below, (soory, lost all the formatting when i pasted it in but i cleaned it up the best I could ) that shows this drastic drop in relationship to other years. Did they not sell well? Thanks..btw, I just love looking at these all lined up in my 2 x 2 book. Martin (Kennedy Family Buff) 1988 P - 13,626,000 1988 D - 12,000,096 1989 P - 24,542,000 1989 D - 23,000,216 1990 P - 22,278,000 1990 D - 20,096,242 1991 P - 14,874,000 1991 D - 15,054,678 1992 P - 17,628,000 1992 D - 17,000,106 1993 P - 15,510,000 1993 D - 15,000,006 1994 P - 23,718,000 994 D - 23,828,110 1995 P - 26,496,000 1995 D - 26,288,000 1996 P - 24,442,000 1996 D - 24,744,000 1997 P - 20,882,000 1997 D - 19,876,000 1998 P - 15,646,000 1998 D - 15,064,000 1999 P - 8,900,000 1999 D - 10,682,000 2000 P -22,600,000 2000 D -19,466,000 2001 P - 21,200,000 2001 D - 19,504,000 2002 P - 3,100,000 2002 D -2,500,000 2003 P - 2,500,000 2003 D - 2,500,000 2004 P - 2,900,000 2004 D - 2,900,000 2005 P - 3,800,000 2005 D -3,500,000 2006 P - 2,400,000 2006 D - 2,000,000 2007 P - 2,400,000 2007 D -2,400,000 2008 P - 1,700,000 2008 D - 1,700,000
After 2001, the mint produceed Kennedy's exclusively for collectors. The reserve has plenty of half dollars currently in stock. If they ever run low, they may produce them for circulation one year again. This is rather unlikely any time soon, as they seem to only circulate in supper clubs in my area.
Most aren't. But the Kennedy halves of 1964 are silver, and the halves from 1965 to 1970 are 40% silver. Guy~
Thanks everyone. I should really get a book on these, varieties, all my other questions, etc. I get a gut feeling that there doesn't seem to be a big demand for these, and they are not widely collected, other wise they would have continued minting these in the same quantities as before.
Actually they are collected by quite a few people. The demand for collectors versus circulation is a BIG BIG difference. Any coin bigger than a quarter has never had tremendous success circulating in the states. After the mint decided to mint them in 40% silver for five years, it only became worse. The 40% halves were hoarded, not circulated as intended. I, myself love the denomination and will die a little inside if they decide to quit producing them.
I'm hoping they do something special, perhaps a new reverse and/or obverse, in 2017, the 100th anniversary of Kennedy's birth. So I'm hoping they continue until at least then. I have a complete collection of them (if you allow "one of each date and mintmark for all business strikes" as a definition of "complete"). I order them from the Mint each year to keep the set up; what I don't put in my collection I spend so as to keep them circulating to some degree.
The half dollar is a useless coin for commerce and has been since the '60s. I know of only two places that use them: - casinos (and even there they are disappearing) - local horse racetracks (since all payoffs are to the dime, the only coins they use are half dollars and dimes)
I have the same collection and hopes as you. I also try to use them in commerce as much as possible. I also realize they either end up in a stash in someone's dresser or back to the bank, out of circulation. The situation is similar with the modern dollar coins, except at least vending machines take those.
