I have searched through $250 of Kennedy Halves and just found my 1st 40% silver. A 1967 today! Woo Hoo! Freddypm
Congrats! Keep up the searching and you will likely be surprised how much silver is still to be found out there.
That's one of things I miss most at casinos ~ I'd put $100 in a half dollar machine, spin, and cash out & silver search..... Now it's all tickets whereever I go ...
TI/TO is the wave of the future for casinos, but you can still try to get halves. Two of the local casinos that I go to still use halves on the BJ tables. eg. $5 BJ pays $7.50. They pay with a 5 chip, two 1 chips and a fifty cent piece instead of a 5 chip and a 2.50 chip. So when I am done playing and cash out, I just ask the cashier for four or five rolls to take home. Tonight I came home with 8 rolls that produced 2 40% coins and a couple of nice coins. Don't know if the nice ones are proof or not (don't know how to tell, yet).
If you find a Kennedy with an S on it, keep it. It's ether a Proof coin or a 1976 Uncirc 40% silver busted out of a special set. the 1965 to 1967 SMS Kennedys can be hard to tell after some circulation In 1964 Philadelphia made the Kennedy proof, but your likely to be hoarding any 1964s anyway. Keep anything 2002 and newer. Anything 1987 or anything 1970. They are only sold to collectors with low mintage. Keep any 2001 that are nice. These had a sizable mintage that was not all released from the government.
I was lucky to find a local bank that had $60 in halves last Thursday. I don't usually get lucky and find rolls and when I do they are usually nothing but clad. I have posted many times that getting loose halves from a teller's tray usually yields better coins...BUT...this time I got lucky. My picture stinks because I am just lousy at taking coin pics, but this is what I found in 6 rolls. It's obviously a collection that was rolled and I am going to go thru the remaining coins to see if there is anything rare. There were no 90% halves but this is the first time I have ever gotten a 1976S and I got 2 I believe most if not all the remaining coins are uncirculated are AU. The coins pictured look like they are circulated with scratches but they really aren't. They also appear BU or AU. *~*Joey*~*
IMO, you're wasting your money keeping 2001 halves, P or D. While I'd agree with a previous post of yours that many of the 1980s dates are relatively hard to find, especially good examples, I've simply come across too many BU 2001 halves. I went through quite a few halves yesterday, and could probably roll $500 in 2001 D/P halves, split 60/40 -- and this wasn't a box that'd just had a new bag of 2001's dumped in, either.
I don't make collections or fill in books but if others do and are looking for a special Kennedy half proof, I'll gladly check mine and trade for any that set collectors might need. I just like searching and finding goodies. Of course silver is a bonus but proofs are fun to find as well. Well off to hit osme banks on a Friday afternoon. Hope I get lucky *~*Joey*~*
My favorite teller just called to let me know that a customer had just brought in $360 in rolled halves. I sure hope that it was granny that lugged them in and not some fellow roll searcher. Wish me luck.
Looking through some rolls the other day I noticed that the main obverse device aka Kennedy Head was much smaller on a 1998 than on earlier examples. Putting them next to one another the difference was stunning. Yet online research brings up nothing. I know that dies are recut but this is almost a redesign. My question: when and why did it happen? Obviously earlier revisions were minor because a 1965 looks about the same as a 1985. His hair is much different and the concave area above his ear is much more pronounced. I think he's even gotten thinner. This seems to have happened in the mid 1990s?
I'm looking through more now, and have pinned the change down to between 1990 and 1994. The 1990s are still the 'fat head' variety Meanwhile, I just discovered a Franklin in my second roll today. Didn't think that could still happen, wow.
Sorry for the large photos (whoa, I see that CT shrank them but they can be enlarged by clicking!). The differences are much clearer in professional proof photography but I learned today that some vendors use the same photos of proof coins over and over (for different years!) and simply plug in different dates on their coin images. Somewhat shocking, and I'll document it if anyone wants. Meanwhile, I'm beginning to think there were a number of tweaks to this design (and I should have said that the engravings rather than the designs were changed). But clearly around 1994 was a watershed. Now I've discovered 3 Coin-Silver halves and 3 40% silver. I wasn't even looking for them or expecting them, really. Sorry to post this in this forum, it should be in the Kennedy Halves forum which I just discovered. Sorry to post in this thread which is about searching rolls. That's what I was doing but it became a design question.
Welcome to the world of half dollar roll-hunting... Now, in addition to just picking out the silver, proofs, and NIFC coins... Buy yourself a good quality 10x loupe (I recommend the BelOmo one available on Amazon) Buy yourself a copy of the Cherrrypicker's Guide Volume 2 5th Edition Start searching for errors and varieties! Think of it this way...you find a 40% half, you make $5. You find a 90% half, you made $11. You find a 1974D DDO, you made at least $20. You find a 1977 D DDO...well, I'm still waiting on my three to get graded by NGC. I've heard somewhere north of $100... Best of luck and make sure to be nice to your dump bank!
Thanks, actually I'm not going to 'dump' these on anyone. I'll spend them and hoard them. People love receiving these in change IME. And everyone who gets one puts it aside...so it's enforced saving for the whole country! Well it would be if I spent enough of them. Already have a jeweler's loupe which I use for old coins. Obverse redesign thing still has me perplexed/amazed. Why has no mention been made of it anywhere?
