Hello everyone, Been finally weighing my Kennedy Half dollars, began with 1971's so I googled what is the weight of a 1971 Kennedy half, showed it should weight 11.34 grams. I read that there is a tolerance but not sure what this means. I weighed my 1971's some are D and no mint marks which weighed 11.1 , 11.2, 11.3 and 11.44 I DON'T GET THIS! I also started on the 1972's and same thing. I have read that some of these could possibly be 40% silver? Can someone tell me what is 40% silver is it the 11.3 and 11.44? Thank you I hope this makes sense
The weight of a clad Kennedy half is supposed to be 11.34g, with a tolerance threshold of 0.454g. This means the lowest tolerable weight is 10.866g, and the highest tolerable weight is 11.794g. The 40 percent silver Kennedy halves range from 11.1g to 11.9g.
The weight of a clad Kennedy half is supposed to be 11.34g, with a tolerance threshold of 0.454g. This means the lowest tolerable weight is 10.866g, and the highest tolerable weight is 11.794g. The 40 percent silver Kennedy halves range from 11.1g to 11.9g.
Yep, really no point in weighing halves, the upper and lower tolerances of the silver clad and copper nickel clad overlap so weight is pretty meaningless.
Don’t drive yourself nuts with weighing them. All coins have a tolerance but coins get rolled thin or thick before being punched into planchets. Most coins will fall within the tolerance allowed. But some will weight a little light and others a wee bit heavy. No real premium unless it’s really over or under weight.
Along with your like, I'd appreciate a 'best answer' too.. I need all the featured threads and best answers I can get
How can it be the best answer of we haven't heard all the answers? Could be Best Answer So Far but without explaining what the coin tolerance is, IE (+ or - ) of a given weight designation.
You need to pick up a simple Red book. You don't need to get one every year, just have a copy for referencing simple stuff like this. I have one in about every room in the house. The 40% halves were in the 1965-1970 range. There were some 1976-S silver clad ones but it says many were melted in 1982. The red book gives you the data for how the composition was split up where the Kennedy half dollar section begins. The 1964s were the last year of the 90% for circulation. For whatever reason they decided to keep a little silver in them for five more years to the tune of 40%. They have 0.1479 troy oz pure silver in them which is in an 80% silver/20% copper outter layer bonded to an inner core of about 21% silver and 79% copper. The end result is a coin that overall is made up of 40% silver. I've read that many bullion dealers are not a fan of 40%ers just because they take up the same size and weight but there's less profit in messing with them while taking the same effort to have them processed. As far as weights are concerned, you're worrying way too much over minor discrepancies that could be anything. Fractions of a gram here is really nothing. You need to be thinking "mass production" There aren't people at the mint, perfectly weighing out proportioned amounts of compounds onto scales to ensure every half dollar is 11.500 grams exact. There were huge sheets that I'm sure had tolerance allowances themselves, which had planchets hammered out of them. Every step of the process can cause variances. After coins have been in circulation, a significant amount of the metal can actually wear off the surface until they're mostly slick. Every bit of the wear process in circulation reduces the weight of the coin from when it was released. That alone can be fractions of a gram. Slick coins can be way underweight.
Thank you everyone! I bought these little cardboard holders and I mark on the outside the year of the coin and one's I have from other countries which I'm grateful for this site in identifying where there from for my kids including the weight. Only reason I asked about the weight was to put on the cardboard holders. Thanks again for the information.
