Proof Silver Kennedy's May Have A Future?

I just plain old like the shiny bling and silver of the Kennedy proofs in my old age. No false expectations of increase in values but sometimes the enjoyment of a certain coin collection far exceeds the monetary value. I would rather not loose a bunch of money but for the amount invested in Kennedys silver proofs, how much would that actually be. For me it is only one at a time, unless I get a deal, and not a whole roll of each. I don't sweat it, just enjoy it.

I'd love to see their value rise, but I don't see it

I just add a silver proof set yearly to my collection to have one example of each year. I decided long ago to not collect clad coins. The Kennedy half design is handsome and the only others I may peruse are cameo examples from 65 to 70.

Proof Silver Kennedy's will rise in price if the price of Silver explodes. Eventually, it will become profitable to melt them down and sell the silver to the refiners.

I foresee a couple reasons why this might not be the case. The primary example of this happening was circa 1980 when junk silver (originally collected at face value) was melted down after silver prices exploded. I question how much numismatic-grade silver was actually melted down, although prices certainly shift where the line is drawn between junk and numismatics when this happens. With that said, I expect almost none of the modern silver Kennedys were collected as junk silver for stacking. The mint made sure of this by pricing the silver sets at multiples of the price of silver. The 2021 silver proof set cost $105. What would the spot price of silver have to go to for you to sell for melt?
So, I think that obviously silver coins will rise in price with the price of silver, but I do not think we will ever see dramatically lower numbers of these coins and a corresponding rarity increase in the future. With that said, I also though Justin Bieber would never be very popular, so I have been wrong in the past.

I think the Kennedy half dollars are a nice looking coin. I too have a very heavy Dansco album with all of them (uncs only, no proofs). The proof coins stay in the sets. I tend to believe that during the great silver melt, there were a lot of circulated coins and I'm sure a bunch of uncirculated ones also, but likely not that many proof coins. So I would bet that there are more 1964 proof Kennedy half dollars still out there than most people think. Enough for anyone who wants one.

I will chime in on this topic.

In order of collectibility of the Kennedy half dollar series - both proof and business strikes.

I would say high quality BU clad Kennedys from 1971 - 1976 would be quite collectible as they were used albeit not as much as prior Half Dollar series. Note by high quality I am talking a potential grade over MS65. Of all Kennedy halves I would say those from 1977 - 2001 would be the least desirable as tens of millions were minted but it was not in great use. If they had precious metal value and 1/100 of the mintage then we would be talking about a collectible series.

Kennedy clad proofs I would think are collectible only in high grades and after about 2014 especially as the sales of proof sets are around the amount of those from the late 1950's.

Kennedy silver proofs would fall into a similar case as the clad but the bullion value acts as a sort of cushion from it falling greatly in value. However, as one commentator wrote, many get the clad proof from the sets as they are much cheaper than the silver ones. I would say recouping your investment is more likely with a very high grade clad Kennedy than some of the silver Kennedy halves.

My stance on it is Kennedy proofs are beautiful coins and worth collecting in moderation if you enjoy them. The silver proofs are a nice bullion coin and I would try to get it separate from the proof sets.

I would prefer focusing my energies on Walking Libertys and Franklins, with the Franklins offering the best bargains for the mintages. Walking Libertys are simply a gorgeous coin to have in a nice MS. Kennedys are more attractive than the Franklins but again they were not used much except in the first 10 - 14 years of issue (and even then less than prior series) and therefore lack the greater range of conditional scarcity the Franklins and Walking Libertys offer). For those who want to get Kennedys of numismatic value there are only three (not including errors) I can think of recommending: 1970 40% silver Kennedy,the 1998 Matte Finish Kennedy, the 2014 set of Kennedys with special finishes. The last one though seems to have many for sale on ebay BUT it is an attractive coin with its high relief and popular.