On the Coin World site, it says that the special Kennedy half dollars to be released this year: "will bear the original higher relief portrait sculpt of Kennedy that U.S. Mint Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts executed in 1963 originally for a Kennedy medal and that was subsequently adapted for the half dollar in 1964" Does this mean the "enhanced hair" obverse will be used?
No. The higher relief from the early Kennedy years, as opposed to the flat and ugly design they use now.
If you mean the Accented Hair seen on some 1964 proofs...my understanding is no. They will be using the same original portrait used on the business strike coins.
OK. I thought that "original" meant the first version (i.e., ODV-001) which had the accented hair. Thanks for the clarification.
I don't know if anyone knows for sure...I'm just going off of the images they have released. Those images are all renderings, no actual coin photos. However, those renderings do not have it.
Got my 7/14 issue of CW today. They are reporting that the 4 coin 90% set is priced at $99.95. They also report that no on sale date has been announced.
From what I understand, the US Mint is a fully operational CNC Shop which to me means that any illustration you see which is provided by the US Mint is exactly what you are going to get as the "hubs" are machined from the images. Die variations such as doubling, grease filling, wear and machine damage will create some varieties but all in all, what you've seen will be what you get. Most notably, the portrait of Kennedy will be noticeably larger than the common circulation quality issues. That Portrait Size was reduced in 1995 with further reductions in 2000. I included the gold coin on both ends but for whatever reasons, PS Elements darkened the image to the far right. Notice how low the portrait goes on the 2014 Gold Coin and the 1964 Coin vs, the 1995 and 2000 coins. I'm really looking forward to all the different versions which will be offered.
That is my understanding as well...however, I wasn't willing to say for absolute certainty that the coins will not be AH as no photograph of an actual coins has been released.
