I acquired two 1964 Kennedy half dollars a while back and when they first came into my possession, they seemed to be two ordinary coins one worth keeping only for the silver value and the other, appealing enough to add to my collection. Normally any coin that enters my home is almost immediately scrutinized under a loupe (if Im pressed for time) or under the scope if I'm not. That didn't happen this time. No sooner had I laid the coins down on my desk, my oldest child comes running through the backdoor yelling for me to come quick, her sister fell off her scooter and is hurt and instead of the laid back, move at my own pace scenario I had dreamed up in my head for the day. Its now a trip to the hospital to mend a broken wrist day. Needless to say, the coins didn't get pushed to the back of my mind. They got pushed out entirely. Coupled with the fact my wife decided to straighten up while I was at the hospital, she put the coins in a drawer and forgot she ever touched them. That's where they sat until a week ago when we decided to spring clean. I put the coins in my safe until we finished organizing our home and then I gave them a thorough look over. What I saw is something I think the coin community should be aware of, so I decided to share my findings and I hope you find it as entertaining as I have. Here are my photos of one of my 1964 Philadelphia minted Kennedy half dollars and my newest addition to the Kennedy line a 1964 Denver minted Kennedy half dollar with no mint mark.
Welcome to Coin Talk ! Sorry your child was hurt . Love the '64 Kennedy halves ! Did you have a question or did I miss something as usual .
I at first thought (stupidly enough) I stumbled upon a SMS because of the very pronounced features despite the wear, the square rim, the cooler color tone, a more slender appearance to the numbering and lettering and the smaller profile image but what caught my attention and helped me realize what it was I was really looking at was the letter B and the letter R in LIBERTY.
Not so much a question more so than an open discussion. From what I have gathered so far a 64 D no mint mark has not surfaced yet and I guess Im looking for additional confirmation on my finding before I decide to send it to be verified.
Only the Denver minted halves used this style of the letter B which can be verified by the slightly curved line that makes up the top part of the lower eyelet. Also the right leg of the R is more slender plus the absence of one of Kennedy's hairs that reaches just under arch.
The reason they haven't been found yet is because if they don't have a mintmark it means they were minted in phili. There are probably some out there, but its is a result of a grease filled or debris filled die/mm.
Do you have a reference for the different B on 1964 Denver coins? As far as I’m aware, all dies were made in Philadelphia. The Denver Mint did not open a die shop until 1996. A Master hub was used to make Master Dies, which were used to make Working Hubs, which were used to make Working Dies. Mintmarks were then placed on the working dies by hand and shipped to Denver. At what step did they use a different B?
hey @Notyard welcome to CT. great pictures and your attention to detail. glad you found the. good luck to ya
Interesting I suppose. "The Philadelphia Mint made master hubs for all the coins and medals the U.S. Mint produces. The mint mark is added to the master hub for each facility, which is used to make several generations of dies and hubs." and then they deliver the dies to the mints each year with their mint marks on them. If it is a D and missing the D, then it's a grease filled die and wear has removed the evidence of it, or it was intentionally removed and wear hides it. Yes coins missing their mintmark exist like the "No S" proof coins 1968 (Roosevelt Dime), 1970 (Roosevelt Dime), 1971 (Jefferson Nickel), 1975 (Roosevelt Dime), 1983 (Roosevelt Dime), and 1990 (Lincoln Cent). However these are an exception, they are proof struck coins, and it's clear they should have the S mintmark and they haven't been circulated. Good luck with your coin, and proving your hypothesis that it's a D and left the mint without a D on it. I don't see anything to suggest one is the accented hair, or a doubled die. so no idea how exactly you come to " it's a D missing the D". I'd like to see your reference source for the B and R on the Obverse and that's the interesting part of this. Be blessed.
I too have two '64 Kennedy's (one no mint mark and one D) that each have a different style of lettering. The D has a flattened wider rim and the lettering and relief are much more sharply defined than the no-mint-mark coin, which just looks like every other business strike-circulation '64 half. It is also different from other business strike '64D halves and is definitely not a proof. So I too am wondering whether it could be an SMS or perhaps one of the test "experimental" strikes that were reportedly prepared in '64 for the '65 mintages. I've read reports that some of them might have ended up in mint sets.
Red book shows 273,304,004 minted in 1964 by Philadelphia Mint. No mint mark!!!! 156,205,446 minted in Denver with a D mint mark!!! Mystery solved!!!
I a It's quite possible you have the 64/65 the only options to find out are of course 3rd party or side by side comparisons of all business, mint, proof and sms. If you happen to get the chance I would like to see some pictures.
Lol I rarely post anything anywhere and instead of trying to figure out how to edit my original. I took the easy route.
I ran comparisons against my own Philadelphia's and PCGS images and there are more than a few differences between the two especially the sizing of the Numbers and letters. I will post pictures as soon as I can pointing everything out I have seen so far.
A clogged or over greased die crossed my mind as well but even with a fully grease filled die the outline of the lettering will still transfer but I have not been able to find any such markings. Unfortunately as you can see the coin has been through some weathered times and it is highly possible the mintmark outline did exist at one point but has been worn away since.
What I have found is all the lettering and numbering on the D minted coins has a smaller more slender profile than The other coins. I have personally done the comparisons between my own coins as well as images from PCGS and there was a major die switch that occured in 64 when Kennedy's wife requested the image change which created the messy haired, clean cut varieties. I do not know how many dies were made but From what I can remember there were at least 6 different dies made in 64. 1 for the sms 2 each for philly and denver 1 messy haired and 1 clean cut and 1 for the proofs. With that many dies I think there's a good chance that a few transitional errors came about.