Are Kennedy Half's Getting Flatter?

Yes, although the same basic design elements remain decades later, the Kennedy half dollar of recent years is visibly quite different from the coin of 1964. Gone is the finely sculpted portrait by Gilroy Roberts. It has been replaced by a low-relief bust that, while superficially having more detail, is far less satisfying as art. As with all of our current circulating coinage, the need for increasing the useful lifetime of dies has muted their value as art. The reverse of this coin type, originally sculpted by Frank Gasparro, features the presidential seal. It has suffered less over the years, but it too lacks the character that it once possessed. The halves of the 1990s to date are almost uniformly sharper, since their relief is so much lower than in earlier years, and fewer pieces are now struck.

There was a 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Uncirculated Coin Set in 2014. This special uncirculated two-coin set was designed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy half-dollar first released in 1964. The collection includes two copper-nickel clad 2014 Kennedy half-dollars with uncirculated finishes, one each from the United States Mint at Philadelphia and Denver. The designs on these coins replicate the high-relief portrait on the original 1964 coin. https://mintnewsblog.com/50th-anniv...ed-coin-set/

https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-gradin...alf-dollars/

So I'm not going crazy. I haven't collected any clad series yet as I've focused on silver coins but since this set I bought is complete to 1998 I may go ahead and finish it. The Kennedy half is in my opinion our most beautiful current issue.
Thanks for the information.

The relief indeed has been lowered. JFK's suit is noticeably flatter. The Mint did the same thing to the Lincoln Cent.

his hair sucks now. I don't think he would have liked that.