Kennedy Halfs

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1964 halves are called junk silver for a reason, they should be left as is, if you want a nice one for your collection, just visit your local dealer. He should have MS 64 Kennedy's for sale at basically their bullion value.

 

I have about 8 tubes full of 1964's, Im not going to clean them, Im not even going to get the crust off of some of them, Im just going to wait untill all of the tubes are full and then drive down to my dealer and cash them in.

 

Personally, the only reason I've done it on the one or two occasions that I have, is because the coin is so far worn as to be only worth bullion value and yet I want to show off the coin since I found it from circulation. To each their own, I guess.

 

I'll admit to cleaning in those circumstances only. it's best to practice on some junk foreign coins first.
Now I'll tell how I do it.
1. soak in soapy water
2. dry, soak in olive oil
3. repeat step one and dry
4. dip in Tarnex, rinse and dry
5. soak in "greased lightning" rinse and dry
6. spray with Turtle wax (automotive) Platinum series ultra brite wheel cleaner
7. Rinse well and dry
8. coat lightly with Mother's (automotive) Mag and Aluminum Polish, wipe off lightly with soft rag

If that don't make your junk shine nothing will!

 

I got another $500 in halved from the bank today. This time I got a FED box, not just rolls from the main branch vault. No great story about opening the box and seeing Walkers and Franklins staring back at me. I did find my first Franklin though, a 1963-D. I also found 3 - 1964, 6 - 1967, and 1 - 1968-D. I found what looks like it used to be a nice cameo 1984-S proof. You can still see some decent frost and mirrors, but it is definitely circulated. The box was not great, but not too bad.

My overall totals so far are:

1 - Franklin
8 - 1964
42 - 40% Silver
1476 - 70s
395 - 80s
501 - 90s
39 - 00s
2 - Proof

Does this sound about average to you serious roll searchers?

 

Believe it or not that actually sounds quite good! You have found coins I would consider worthy of keeping (Franklin, 90% and 40% silver Kennedy, Proof) about 2% of the time, whereas my long-time average, at least when I lived in nearby Iowa, was around 0.5% to 1% out of around $30,000. Of course, sometimes I found closer to 20% keepers and sometimes 0%, but it averages out. It also seemed like the average for Fed boxes was lower than small town banks.

 

I agree with AgCollector, you finds are well ablove average. I also have averaged over $20K in halves just over 0.5% keepers, so your 2% rate is 4 times as good as average. If you keep searching you will have nothing boxes and you will have killer boxes (more than 10% keepers) but over time it will average out to about .5%. Nice box!

 

searched 10 rolls

Out of 10 rolls:
one 1967
one 1934D Walking Liberty AG-G

 

Nice, especially the Walker. Are these rolls from the silver witch?!

 

Yup her bank. But she wasn't there and her deputys were not either. There were only 2 nice polite tellers and the manager, no other customers. Maybe the silver witch got promoted to the intrastate half dollar patrol team.
There were a couple of other good coins in those 10 rolls too.
One worth mention is a 1991D that shines like a proof. We don't get any 1991D halfs here in the last green valley of CT.

 

You know I've found 4 or 5 of the same thing (proof-like / mint 1991-D halves) since moving here to Maine, maybe someone cashed in a boat load of mint sets from 1991-D in the northeast?

 

There have been many halves of different years which looked like proofs. None have a S mintmark.
They seem more slippery when softly wiped with a cloth. The finish seems harder and less porus overall. I have no way of knowing if they really are from mint sets and just somehow ended up in circulation. Mostly P minted coins.
Maybe they are just a very good strike to begin with. The double strike that proofs get would explain the hardness though. Any thoughts? Is the San Francisco mint the only one that made proofs?

 

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Oh oh the coin cleaning police!

 

I'm with Roy on this one, what would cause someone to think that a shiny "prooflike" coin should be wiped with a cloth?! I can't think of any reason that someone would think that adding hairlines to a coin would improve it's look or value. I just don't get it!?!

 

You guys must think I found a real treasure! I doubt if anyone would pay more than 50 cents for it.
Have you ever found a proof or prooflike coin in circulation? That coin has 99 nicks and scratches in it already. It was laying out on a table for weeks and gathered dust. I simply dusted it off to put in a 2X2.
If I scratched it, which I doubt, you couldn't tell mine from the other 99 defects.

 

I dont know if they've been mentioned but...

There are great doubled dies on 1964, 1964 D, 1966, 1967, and 1968 D kennedys. Also Doubled Die Reverses on 1965, and 1969 D to name a few easier ones to spot.

On non-silver issues, Nice DDOs on 1971, 1971 D, 1972, 1972 D, and 1974 D.

I've found nice DDRs on 1973 and 1973 D dated coins.

Have Fun,
Bill

 

You should never ever rub a coin---even if you can't see anything you've done with your eye its there---just wipping a coin with a paper towle can leave tons of little nicks....

Speedy

 

I have to agree with Victor on this one, I have found coins in circulation that I've kept but aren't in great shape so I'm pretty lax about handling (or wiping) them.

Look at it this way- do you wear cotton gloves to handle your pocket change when paying for something or getting change back? Of course not. On the other hand, if someone showed you a BU 1916-D Mercury dime you'd be a fool to run your thumb over it. Somewhere in between these two cases everyone draws a line, and I think we just disagree as to where that line is.