I was curious about this particular coin since I see people saying they're finding them in boxes and I've yet to find one. I have a bunch of 1972 D, and a few other dates where the FG inititials are only barely visible at a specific angle. They aren't worn down, they just weren't clearly struck because of the polished die I guess. In order to be a true "no fg" can there be any trace of either letter under a loupe? Thank you in advance
The No FG can have no initials due to die abrasion and not a grease filled die. From what you've described, your No FG's are from grease filled dies. Of the 4 I've personally handled, they all have the same die markers (other than the obvious). The stars below the tail feathers are extrtemely weak and the tail fethers themselves have no distinct definition. On the obverse, they all had the same die scratching through the WE TRUST portion of the motto. There can be no trace of the initials. Extremely weak initials just wont cut it. I have to question if folks are saying they are finding these in boxes because they are really difficult to locate. PCGS has only attributed 7.
Do they bring a premium high enough to be worth spending the money to get the certified as No FG mint errors? Last I knew they didn't, so why bother to send them in?
19Lyds - thank you for the clarification. I figured that very faint letters under a loupe wouldn't cut it, but I get the feeling that must be what people are finding as well. I
Lots of sellers on flea-bay selling hype, as in "Weak FG" no such thing exists, it's either NO FG or nothing. As I understand it, the reverse die was not abraded but was purposely polished by an over zealous Mint employee and allowed the die to return back to the cage for check out. I own one that I cherry picked from a dealer. The certified numbers are skewed low because the value for one in MS-63 is still under $20
Any idea of the number of 1972-D "NO FG" Kennedy Halves struck? I am assuming the die was at mid to late die state when it was over-polished / abraded and ended up striking a limited number of coins after that.
Polishing and Abrading are synonomous. Perhaps you can find an 1982 No FG at MS63 for under $20 but no way in hell can you even come close to a 1972-D No FG in MS63 for less than $500. 1982 had a very high distribution with only the highest MS grades showing any real value. Typically, MS66 brings more than $100 whereas MS67 can get well into 4 figures without the decimal point. Unknown but finding them in MS is a huge challenge simply because collectors in 1972 simply did not hang on to a coin which looked like it was Circulated which is the case for the 1972-D No FG. There's also the fact that the Kennedy Half was included in the US Mint Uncirculated Sets so even original ROLLS of 1972-D Kennedy's are difficult to locate. Very Few individuals stuck away rolls of CnClad coins simply because, at the time, there was no upside. I would speculate that a Mint Sealed bag of 1972-D Kennedy Half Dollars would bring many, many multiples over face value just for the outside chance than an MS example of the 1972-D No FG might reside inside.
Now, I have to go through all of my Kennedy Half dollars ( and there is a lot of them) Just to (probably) rule out any possibility that I happen to overlooked one or more and have put them either in albums, slabs , or some other method of storage) I have a ton of mint sets and proof sets to go thru ( bought many when they first came out thinking that they would have included Ike dollars by then..
Okay folks. Just got a camera system and wanted to look at a half dollar I've had for awhile. Let me know your thoughts on pictures, but also the 72-D No FG. Thanks!
2 years of searching boxes has yielded me these. Others here have found more. You can see them by searching through the crh thread. Actually, we do find them in boxes but they will never be in MS condition. I found this one last night.
Pardon my density...so for a half-dollar to have increased value... because of the lack of the FG, there must not be even the faintest mark of the designer's intials? I found a few with rather faint initials...so return these and keep searching?
