Is This Kennedy Half Dollar Worth Getting Graded? (1964)

The Accented Hair design was used for striking proofs and not circulation coins, which were among the very first coins struck bearing the new design. Upon seeing the early proof strikes, Kennedy requested that the hair detail be softened so the strands of hair appeared less prominent. The request was approved by U.S. Mint officials, and all proofs struck after that time saw the softer hair detail, resulting in the Accented Hair design becoming a one-year-only type. There are no firm numbers on exactly how many 1964 Accented Hair Proof Kennedy half dollars were struck, but estimates suggest only between 50,000 to 100,000, more or less, rolled off the presses. That means the Accented Hair design accounts for far less than 5% of the entire proof mintage run of 3,950,762 examples. Values for this scarce type range from about $50 to $75 for a typical example in the range of PR63 to PR65. However, superb examples graded PR68 or higher can easily fetch $350 or more. One of the highest prices ever achieved by this coveted Kennedy half dollar rarity was realized at a September 2017 Heritage Auctions event, when a gorgeous example graded PR68DCAM crossed the block for a sensational $17,400. There are also doubled dies found on these. In general condition plays also an important part of whether something is average or high value. Also listings on ebay are only listed prices rather than sold prices and may never sell at that listed price so you should check sold listings on the left side to see only those which have sold.

Yours is not the accented hair. The most obvious diagnostic of the Accented Hair design is the heavy hair stranding over Kennedy's ear on the center of the obverse. However, another way to attribute this variety is to look for a missing detail in the lettering of "LIBERTY." The letter "I" of "LIBERTY" on the Accented Hair coin will be missing the majority of the lower left serif, which appears in full on other iterations of the Kennedy half dollar. Also absent is the horizontal serif of the letter "G" from Frank Gasparro's "FG" initials seen on the reverse.

You can use a price guide to casually gauge what a graded coin might be worth if you paid grading fees and it met a certain grade https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide...-dollars/44/ or https://m.numismedia.com/rarecoinprices.htm

I certainly hope you meant to say is that you saw them LISTED for over $1000. I just took a look and found they are selling from $10 to $25 raw and $20 to $50 slabbed.

I did see ONE PF69 Kennedy sell for over $100, but that was a rarity.

The 'accented hair' variety is only on proof 1964 Kennedy's. Even those should be cheaper than $100.

Added:Oops, took me too long to post, the hair data was listed already. Also, DBM, he meant MRS Kennedy.

@datadragon, thanks for all that info. Very detailed.

@atticguy - I stand corrected. I went back and looked at past sales on eBay's terapeak and only saw one ungraded selling above $1000. The others were graded. But several ungraded ones were selling for several hundred dollars.

@nickelsearcher,

I'd agree with you except terapeak is eBay's website that shows historical past sales, and the ones I saw were within the past two years. I know it's crazy, but if people want to spend that kind of money, I'll gladly let them lol

Agree with others, not worth getting graded. Welcome to the Community.

Definitely save your money.

Thanks for all the advice. I won't waste my money then sending it to be graded.

Thanks,

Andy