Which Kennedy Half Dollars Were Not Issued For Circulation?

PCGS - The long-running Kennedy half dollar series kicked off production in January 1964, literally weeks after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by self-proclaimed American Marxist Lee Harvey Oswald during a presidential procession in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. A mourning nation hoarded the new Kennedy half dollar from the moment it was officially released to the public on March 24, 1964.

Public demand for the new Kennedy half dollar prompted the United States Mint to strike more than 430 million 1964-dated Kennedy half dollars - a number more than double the amount needed to provide all 195 million men, women, and children living in the United States at the time with an example of their own. But the coin was largely viewed as a 50-cent memento of the beloved president, and the public collectively stockpiled virtually all examples they could get their hands on.


Kennedy half dollar, 1970-D 50C, PCGS MS67.

The Disappearance of Kennedy Half Dollars

Within months, a denomination that had circulated widely and freely throughout the United States prior to carrying Kennedy's likeness had suddenly disappeared from circulation. It was a situation exacerbated further still from the ongoing speculation in silver bullion, which had hit then-record prices of $1.29 around 1963 and induced millions of Americans to accumulate silver coins, including dimes, quarters, and halves, whose 90% silver compositions were suddenly worth more than the face values of those coins.

The United States government debased the Kennedy half dollar in the following years, first in 1965 when the half dollar's composition was switched to a 40% silver clad format then again in 1971 when silver was eliminated completely in lieu of a copper-nickel clad profile. Yet, the public continued saving Kennedy half dollars.

There was - and remains to this day among many non-numismatists - a fallacious perception that all Kennedy half dollars regardless of their condition are worth more than face value. Perhaps this belief arose from the general lack of Kennedy half dollars (or any half dollars) in circulation. Or maybe it was connected to the understanding that 1960s Kennedy half dollars contain silver - and therefore perhaps all do (of course, most issues made since 1971 don't). Or there could be other factors contributing to the public's longstanding general view that Kennedy half dollars are something that should be saved.

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