The Kennedy half dollar, first minted in 1964, is a fifty-cent coin currently
issued by the United States Mint. Intended as a memorial to the
assassinated President John F. Kennedy, it was authorized by Congress just over
a month after his death. Use of existing works by Mint sculptors Gilroy Roberts
and Frank Gasparro allowed dies to be prepared quickly, and striking of the
new coins began in January 1964. The silver coins vanished from
circulation upon their release in March 1964 due to collectors, hoarders, and
those interested in a memento of the late president. Although the Mint
greatly increased production, the denomination was seldom seen in
circulation. Continued rises in the price of silver increased the
hoarding—many early Kennedy half dollars have been melted for their silver.
Starting with 1965-dated pieces, the percentage of fine silver was reduced
from 90% to 40%, but even with this change the coin saw little circulation.
In 1971, silver was eliminated entirely from the coins. A special design for the
reverse of the half dollar was issued for the United States Bicentennial and
was struck in 1975 and 1976. In addition to business strikes, special collector
coins were struck for the Bicentennial in silver clad; silver proof sets in
which the dime, quarter and half dollar were struck in 90% silver were first
minted in 1992. In 2014 a special edition of the Kennedy half dollar was
also struck in 99.99% gold. Even though ample supplies of
circulating half dollars are now available, their circulation is
extremely limited. Since 2002, Kennedy half dollars have only been struck to
satisfy the demand from collectors, and are available at a premium through the
Mint. Inception
Within hours of the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963,
Mint Director Eva Adams called Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts, informing him
that serious consideration was being given to depicting Kennedy on one of the
larger silver coins: either the silver dollar, half dollar, or quarter dollar.
Adams called Roberts again on November 27 and authorized the project, stating
that the late president's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy preferred that he be
depicted on the half dollar, replacing the previous design of Benjamin
Franklin. Mrs. Kennedy's reasoning was that she did not want to replace George
Washington on the quarter. In the interest of time, Roberts
modified the existing bust of Kennedy he had created for use on the Kennedy medal
in the Mint's Presidential series, while Frank Gasparro began modifications to
the reverse he had created for the same medal. Both Roberts' and Gasparro's
designs had been approved by Kennedy. Roberts had met with Kennedy in person
to show him early models of the design; although the President expressed no
opinion regarding the depiction, Roberts decided to make some changes after
meeting him. After the Mint produced trial strikes, Jacqueline and Robert
Kennedy were invited to view them. Mrs. Kennedy viewed the designs favorably,
but suggested that the hair be altered slightly. It was also suggested that a
full or half figure of the president be used instead of the profile, but Roberts
noted that there was not enough time to produce an entirely new design because
of the project's time constraints, and also that he believed the left profile
would give a more attractive appearance. Frank Gasparro's reverse design of the
Kennedy half dollar was also influenced by the experience he gained from
designing the President John. F. Kennedy appreciation medal. In 1962, President
Kennedy had three hundred appreciation medals struck by the United States Mint
in Philadelphia that were later presented during his June 23, 1963
through July 2, 1963 trip to the nations of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany,
Ireland, United Kingdom, Italy, and the Vatican City State. The reverse design
of the Kennedy appreciation medal depicts a larger and more detailed
Presidential Seal than the one he designed on the Mint's Presidential
series. Gasparro's placement of his initials FG is also similarly located on
both the Kennedy appreciation medal and Kennedy half dollar.
Congressional approval was required for any design change within 25 years of the
last. In early December, Representative Henry Gonzalez introduced a bill for
Kennedy to appear on the half dollar. On December 10, the new President, Lyndon
Johnson, endorsed the call for a Kennedy half dollar, asking Congress to pass the
legislation promptly to allow striking of the new piece to begin early in 1964.
President Johnson stated that he had been moved by letters from many members
of the public to agree with the plan. The bill to authorize the Kennedy half
dollar passed on December 30, 1963. Work was already underway on coinage dies;
the use of the already-available designs allowed for the completion of the first
dies on January 2, 1964. Only proof coins were initially struck. The first
Kennedy half dollars intended for circulation were struck at the Denver
Mint on January 30, 1964, followed by the Philadelphia Mint the next week. A
ceremonial first strike was held at both Philadelphia and Denver on February 11,
1964. Release
= Initial popularity= The Treasury Department made the coins
available to the public beginning on March 24, 1964. A line a block long
formed at the department's windows in Washington to purchase the 70,000 coins
initially allocated for public sale. Although the department limited sales to
40 per customer, by the end of the day, the coins were gone, but the line had
not shortened. Banks in Boston and Philadelphia quickly rationed supplies,
but still sold out by noon. Sales in New York did not begin until the following
day, and rationing was imposed there as well, to the disgruntlement of the head
of the coin department at Gimbels, the largest dealer in the city, which had
hoped to sell the coins at a premium. The coins were popular overseas as well.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs G. Mennen Williams
distributed plastic-encased specimens to presidents and foreign ministers of
African nations and to the U.S. ambassadors serving there "to win
friends for the United States in Africa". Shortly after the coin's
release, the Denver Mint began receiving complaints that the new coin depicted a
hammer and sickle on the bottom of Kennedy's truncated bust. In response,
Roberts stated that the portion of the design in question was actually his
monogram, a stylized "GR". The Mint struck Kennedy half dollars in
large numbers in an attempt to meet the overwhelming demand. The Treasury had
initially planned to issue 91 million half dollars for 1964, but raised the
number to 141 million. However, a public announcement of the increase failed to
cause more coins to actually circulate or to decrease the prices on the
secondary market. By late November, the Mint had coined approximately 160
million pieces, yet the coin was almost never seen in circulation. Silver prices
were rising, and many coins were being hoarded. Hopeful that issuing more
1964-dated coins would counter the speculation in them, the Treasury
requested and received Congressional authorization to continue striking
1964-dated coins into 1965. Eventually, almost 430 million half dollars dated
1964 were struck, a sum greater than the total struck for circulation in the
sixteen years of the Franklin half dollar series.
These minting operations were rapidly depleting the Treasury's stock of
silver. Prices for the metal were rising to such an extent that, by early June, a
dime contained 9.33 cents' worth of silver at market prices. On June 3,
1965, President Johnson announced plans to eliminate silver from the dime and
quarter in favor of a clad sandwich with layers of copper-nickel on each side of
a layer of pure copper. The half dollar was changed from 90% silver to 40%.
Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1965 in July. The new half dollars retained
their silvery appearance, due to the outer layer being 80% silver and 20%
copper. The coin was also minted with an inner layer of 21% silver and 79%
copper. The first clad half dollars were struck at the Denver Mint on December
30, 1965. They bore the date 1965; the date would not be changed for US coins
until the coin shortage was eased. Beginning on August 1, 1966, the Mint
began to strike 1966-dated pieces, and thereafter it resumed the normal
practice of striking the current year's date on each piece. Despite the
proclaimed end to the coin shortage, Kennedy half dollars circulated little,
a scarcity caused by continued hoarding and a dip in production, with the
Treasury reluctant to expend more of the nation's silver holdings on a coin which
did not circulate. According to coin dealer and numismatic author Q. David
Bowers, Where the hundreds of millions of them
went remains somewhat of a mystery today. In the meantime, Washington
quarters, the same design used since 1932, became the highest value coin of
the realm, in terms of circulation use. These were particularly popular for
vending machines, arcade games, and the like. Today, this continues to be the
case, and Kennedy half dollars as well as the later mini-dollar coins, are
almost never encountered." = Switch to base metal=
In May 1969, the Treasury sought authorization to eliminate the half
dollar's silver content, changing it to the same copper-nickel clad composition
as the dime and quarter. The Treasury also sought approval to strike
base-metal dollar coins, which would fill a need for gaming tokens in Western
casinos. Former president Dwight Eisenhower had died recently, and there
was discussion of placing Eisenhower's portrait on the dollar. The Treasury
hoped that with the removal of the silver content, the coin would cease to
be hoarded and again circulate. Despite the support of President Richard Nixon,
some Republicans in the House of Representatives initially scuttled the
legislation, disliking the idea of putting Eisenhower on a base metal coin.
The dispute dragged on for over a year before Nixon signed a bill on December
31, 1970 which authorized the Eisenhower dollar and eliminated silver from the
half dollar. As a result of the delay, in 1970 non-proof half dollars were only
made in Denver and released solely in mint sets. With a mintage of 2.1 million
the 1970-D Kennedy is considered the "key" to the series, although enough
were produced to keep prices modest. The Mint did not announce that 1970 half
dollars would not be struck for circulation until after mint set
ordering had closed. By the time silver was eliminated from
the half dollar, it had been out of circulation for so long that banks had
eliminated the slot for the denomination from machines. The Mint anticipated a
comeback for the denomination, but in July 1971, Mint Director Mary Brooks
disclosed that the Treasury was holding 200 million of the new base metal half
dollars, as commercial banks expressed little interest in ordering them. "I
can't understand the population. They're not using them." According to Brooks,
most of the over one billion Kennedy half dollars containing silver had been
hoarded by the public. Brooks theorized that because the silver Kennedy half
dollar never circulated much and few half dollars were struck in 1970 in
anticipation of the authorization to eliminate silver, the public had become
accustomed to not seeing the half dollar in trade. Brooks suggested, "If the
country knew there were plenty of them around, they'd probably start hoarding
them, too." On March 5, 1973, Brooks announced that
the Mint would be soliciting new reverse designs for the half dollar and dollar
to commemorate the 1976 United States Bicentennial. On October 18, President
Nixon signed Public Law 93-127, which provided for new reverse designs for the
quarter, half dollar, and dollar. The designs were to be emblematic of the
Bicentennial era. The Mint announced a competition open to all American
sculptors. Seth G. Huntington's design depicting Independence Hall was selected
for the half dollar. All half dollars struck in 1975 and 1976 bore the double
date 1776–1976 on the obverse and Huntington's design on the reverse. Over
521 million Bicentennial half dollars were struck for circulation.
Following the high mintage of the Bicentennial piece, the number of pieces
struck per year declined. However, in 1979, Mint Director Stella B. Hackel
indicated that the Mint would continue to strike them. "We really don't think
many half dollars are being used in commerce. They do go somewhere, though,
so someone must want them." By then, more than 2.5 billion Kennedy half
dollars had been struck, more than all previously struck half dollars combined.
The New York Times numismatic columnist Ed Reiter suggested that hoarding had
continued even into the base-metal era, accounting for the shortage of pieces in
commerce. The late 1970s saw the destruction of many early Kennedy half
dollars, as high silver prices caused extensive melting for the metal content.
The coin continued to be struck through the remainder of the twentieth century,
and mintage numbers remained relatively steady in both the Philadelphia and
Denver mints until 1987, a year in which no half dollars were struck for
circulation; the Treasury had accumulated a two-year supply of the
pieces, making further production unncessary. Demand for half dollars
dropped, and casinos increasingly began producing fifty cent tokens to use in
place of the coins. With mintage numbers remaining low, beginning in 2002, the
Kennedy half dollar ceased to be struck for general circulation. Rolls and bags
of the current year's pieces may be purchased from the Mint, at a premium
above face value. In January 2014, a private firm, on
behalf of the Mint, began surveying customers on possible options for a
special issue of the half dollar in commemoration of its 50th anniversary.
In June, the Mint announced plans to issue seven special 2014 Kennedy half
dollars in commemoration of the series' fiftieth anniversary: two in clad, from
Philadelphia and Denver, four in silver from Philadelphia, Denver, San
Francisco, and the West Point Mint, and one in .9999 gold, from West Point. The
clad and silver versions bear the normal date; the gold coin has the double date
1964–2014. All have higher relief than the usual issues. The gold coins were
released in conjunction with the American Numismatic Association
convention in Rosemont, Illinois on August 5, 2014.
Collecting With the exception of 1965 through 1967,
proofs have been struck each year in the same metallic composition as regular
issue pieces. The first Kennedy half dollar proofs were struck in early
January 1964. Early strikes depicted Kennedy with heavily accented hair; an
estimated 100,000 coins were struck with this feature. This was altered for the
remainder of the mintage of nearly four million proof coins. Due to the coin
shortage, the Treasury Department announced that no proof sets would be
struck in 1965. Instead, Special Mint Sets would be struck to satisfy
collector demand. Coins for these sets, minted at the San Francisco Assay
Office, were struck with no mint marks early in 1966 with heavily polished dies
dated 1965. Similar sets bearing the dates 1966 and 1967 were also struck. A
few of the 1966 halves from the Special Mint Sets are known with Gasparro's
initials "FG" missing from the reverse, apparently because of an overpolished
die. The first year's production was sold in soft plastic packaging; the 1966
and 1967 issues were sonically sealed in hard plastic cases. In 1968, regular
proof coinage was resumed, although production of proof coins was shifted to
San Francisco, the "S" mintmark added and sets were encapsulated in hard
plastic. In 1973, Congress authorized silver-clad
collector versions of the Bicentennial coins; in April 1975, the Mint began to
strike them. The coins were issued in both proof and uncirculated quality.
Copper-nickel clad Bicentennial coins were placed in both the 1975 and 1976
proof sets, while their silver clad counterparts were sold in three coin
sets. Since 1992, the Mint has struck Kennedy half dollars in 90% silver for
inclusion in special silver proof sets. 1964 proofs were struck in Philadelphia,
and since 1968, proof coins have been struck in San Francisco only. In 1998,
some silver proof pieces were struck to a matte finish for inclusion in a set
along with a Robert Kennedy commemorative silver dollar. From
2005–2010, uncirculated pieces included in mint sets received a matte finish,
which differentiates them from the pieces sold in bags and rolls.
See also Coins of the United States dollar
Cultural depictions of John F. Kennedy Kennedy half dollar mintage figures
References Bibliography