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Message:: [QUOTE="Caleb, post: 1960008, member: 32795"]19Lyds, In reference to your questions:   First, a review of the timeline is needed.  I would suggest using Gilroy Roberts’ REMINISCENCES ON THE CREATION OF THE KENNEDY HALF DOLLAR dated 04-29-1964 as a starting point, a part I will quote here: “Both sides of the trial strikes received very favorable comment; however, Secretary of the Treasury Dillon wished to have Mrs. Kennedy’s opinion and wanted me to accompany him at that time.  On December 17th, we met Mrs. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy.  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.  They also had in mind a design showing a full figure or half figure of the late President.  There was simply not enough time to create new designs and medals, get approvals, etc. and have the new coin in production by January, 1964.  I strongly advocated the simplicity and directness of a profile portrait as being the best possible arrangement for a handsome, outstanding coin whose beauty would endure and there could be no doubt as to the identity of the subject. 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.  The Congressional Act authorizing the Kennedy Half Dollar was approved December 30, 1963. 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.  Some minor problems still had to be ironed out for regular production but by January 30, 1964, Denver had started production of regular Half Dollar coinage using the new design.  Sometime during the following week, the Philadelphia Mint started striking regular Half Dollar coinage.” So on your first question, on December 17th, 1963, Mrs. Kennedy “felt it would be an improvement if the part in the hair, on the portrait, was less pronounced and more accents were added.  Mr. Roberts further wrote that Mrs. Kennedy’s suggestions were carried out and another trial die was made for the obverse and new trial strikes were prepared. Mr. Roberts flew to West Palm Beach on Thursday, December 27th so that Secretary Dillon and his wife could inspect the new trial 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.” An interesting point that is news to me is the date of the Hub in the article; it is stamped 12-28-63 (the day after Secretary of the Treasury inspected the new trial strikes). Could this hub not be a “working hub” but the “master hub” for the proof coins? Your second question, if the hub pictured in the article was the “master hub” it looks like the lower serif of the “I” in LIBERTY is missing. Speculating on what may have happened, maybe they made a second “master hub” to correct the “I” in LIBERTY but forgot to transfer the “Hair Accents” onto the new “master hub”.  If this is what happened then it would matter when the “I” in LIBERTY was corrected to determine how common or rare the “Accented Hair” version is.[/QUOTE]

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