A little disappointing...

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by Troodon, Feb 8, 2008.

  1. Troodon

    Troodon Coin Collector

    My 2008 Kennedy halves showed up today. Opened up the Philadelphia roll, and almost all of them had nasty scratches and dents... was able to find about 5 where the field had no deep scratches and the details didn't have any. The Denver roll was even worse... I could only find one with no badly distracting scratches (and even it had a tiny one, though not deep).

    To be fair the reverse were all very good, little to no scratches. It's the obverse that seems to be getting the problems.

    Now I wasn't expecting 2 rolls of nothing but MS-70's lol... I'm realistic, I know this are just business strikes with no special handling. But I think I only found 6 in the enitre bunch (of 40, 20 each of Denver and Philadelphia) that could make 65 even. I don't get it... you'd think the Mint would take better care of these, considering that the only reason they're even still minted is for the sake of collectors.

    On another note, was talking to the tour guide at the Denver Mint yesterday and he said the estimate for Denver half dollars this year is about 1.8 million. Would be the new key if so (less than the about 2 million 1970-D)... though this is just a guess and depends on the demand beforethe year's up (legislation only says they have to make as many as demanded before the year's up).

    Based on what I saw high grade 2008-D halves will probably be pretty rare lol... possibly valuable in the future if the demand's there, especially if they mint less than 2 million.

    Demand on Kennedy halves keeps going down and I think the key of this series will probably be whatever the last year they end up being minted... though I imagine they'll keep minting them as long as collectors are willing to buy some and as long as the depicted president's brother stays in Congress.

    I've said before and will say again that I'd love to see the Mint and/or Congress take some action to get people excited about these to get them circulating again. Possibly in 2017 (100th anniversary of JFK's birth) they can do special reverses like they're doing for Kennedy next year. I'll be doing my part... I'm putting 38 of these into circulation lol...
     
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  3. Aslanmia

    Aslanmia Active Member

    We have a similar problem up in here in Canada. If it wasn't for mint sets, I wouldn't have even known we mint half dollars every year, let alone seen one.

    Cash drawers don't have a slot for them and soda machines don't take them. And on top of all that, the obverse is a little too busy for me... it looks more like a British coin (reminds me of a half crown) then it does a Canadian one.
     
  4. Troodon

    Troodon Coin Collector

    I love the 1967 Canadian half dollar (love all the 1967 Canadians coins for that matter, and have a set of them), with its howling wolf... they ought to change the reverse to something like that on a permanent basis, maybe people would actually spend them again. Or even if they don't circulate much, at least some people other than a handful of collectors would know they exist lol...

    All the other Canadian coins circulate so much that they manage to sneak into US cash drawers quite often lol... besides the one and two dollar coins have seen every other denomination make its way south to get mistaken for US change, even in some bank-wrapped rolls. (Though have found a toonie on the floor in the mall I work at lol... how it got there I don't know... unless it fell out of the pocket of a Candian tourist or someone who recently visited Canada or something.)
     
  5. alcochaser

    alcochaser Large Clad Dollar Nut

    Halves will probably stick around as a collector item only. If there is no half.....it takes the wind out of the sales of the Silver proof sets... as only the Half, Quarter(s), and Dime usually have silver.......

    But as long as collectors buy them, you will see them.

    I doubt you will see any more halves made for general circulation again.
     
  6. chrisild

    chrisild Coin Collector

    The US half dollar is not exactly handy, maybe that is why it's not used much? In terms of diameter, the quarter is fine (so is the $1 coin - guess there are other reasons why people don't like them), but the half is more than 30 mm ...

    Christian
     
  7. Cloudsweeper99

    Cloudsweeper99 Treasure Hunter

    That's good information about the potential for the 2008d. I happen to think that the Kennedy is the only decent looking coin that is currently minted. My guess would be that 150 years from now it will be the most collected coin from this time period.
     
  8. clembo

    clembo A closed mind is no mind

    Good point.

    Although I'm tired of looking at any dead President on a coin I DO like the reverse of the Kennedy half.
    Now in 150 years it may be the most collected as people do like the large coins. Seems there would be a lot of higher grade examples to be had as well as they don't really circulate.

    May have to try my hand at a poll for this. :)

    clembo
     
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