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Is This Bicentennial Half Dollar 40% Silver?

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ratman4762's Avatar
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2520 Posts
 Posted 01/28/2026  03:02 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add ratman4762 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
No "S" mint, silver plated will pass tissue test and a plated coin will weigh heavier than a like coin that is not plated. Why is the "hold" button pushed on the scale?
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Marv65's Avatar
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 Posted 01/28/2026  03:12 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Marv65 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
Why is the "hold" button pushed on the scale?


Shhhhhh! You weren't supposed to see that!
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Brandmeister's Avatar
United States
6495 Posts
 Posted 01/28/2026  10:17 am  Show Profile   Check Brandmeister's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add Brandmeister to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
All I see is a coin under a tissue. You need a couple normal cupronickel coins and a silver coin under that tissue for comparison.

A clad half is 11.34g. A 40% silver half is 11.5g. But if you added a small amount of plating to an 11.34g clad half, it could easily add 0.16g to reach 11.5g.

If you are dead set on grading the coin, consider ANACS. It would be much cheaper than PCGS.
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HondoB's Avatar
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25109 Posts
 Posted 01/28/2026  11:11 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add HondoB to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
While the weight and appearance are consistent with a silver planchet coin, they are more likely explained by silver plating. My researches indicate that there are no known examples of Philly-minted silver Kennedy half dollars.
If you feel that strongly that your coin is the only known example, by all means send it in for authentication. Please report back with the results.
Inordinately fascinated by bits of metal with strange markings and figures
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cladking's Avatar
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2271 Posts
 Posted 01/28/2026  11:50 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add cladking to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
Halves minted at the San Francisco Mint (S) were 40% but the rim edge is silver looking. Probably a plated coin originally minted at Philadelphia.


Philly did strike six, if I remember correctly, of each half and dollar on 40% planchets dated 1976.

I can't see the edge well or many surfaces but I don't see anything to rule out the possibility it's genuine despite remarkably long odds.

It might look plated in hand but some 40% do tone similarly.

Don't forget as well that some 40% half dollars are very hard to see the 100 fine center.

Better pictures might go a long way toward being sure it's plated. An angle with diffuse light of the edge with the rim. When the color gradient is consistent across this the coin is plated.

Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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jbuck's Avatar
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 Posted 01/28/2026  3:29 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add jbuck to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
Don't forget as well that some 40% half dollars are very hard to see the 100 fine center.
40% silver coins have 21% silver core.
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Errers and Varietys's Avatar
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 Posted 01/28/2026  3:48 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Errers and Varietys to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
As stated before, it's obviously been plated. It would be a huge waste of money to get it slabbed. It's not silver as Marv said. Do what you want, but you're going to learn the hard way.
Errers and Varietys.
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cladking's Avatar
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 Posted 01/29/2026  07:20 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add cladking to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
40% silver coins have 21% silver core.


Yes. I was also confused about those Philly proof sets. They were three coin sets with the quarter for promotion of the new designs and mint products containing them.

Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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DoubleEagle20's Avatar
United States
1748 Posts
 Posted 01/29/2026  3:27 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add DoubleEagle20 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
If it was a Denver coin, I'd say send it to PCGS for verification. Reason being SF mint routinely sent reject proof planchets to Denver for business strike coining. That is why 1974-D Ike silver clad dollars and 1977-D silver clad quarters, halves and dollars exist.

Being a Philly coin, I definitely think it's plated. I have never heard of planchets going from SF to Philly.
Edited by DoubleEagle20
01/29/2026 3:31 pm
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