How Do You Know When A Kennedy Half Is SMS?

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Author	Replies: 7 / Views: 1,317
noo_mis_muh_tist New Member United States 37 Posts	Posted 10/19/2009 7:19 pm I've got a 1966 Kennedy half graded Prooflike MS 66 on the coin flip, but I don't know if it's SMS or even Prooflike. If it's from the coins struck for circulation, it's worth about $250 to $275, but if it's just SMS, it's only worth about $20. How can I determine if it's SMS or not? Edited by noo_mis_muh_tist 10/20/2009 5:05 pm Report this Post to the Staff

hippiebrian Valued Member United States 436 Posts	Posted 10/19/2009 10:08 pm Good question! I marked the SMS's I have because I pulled them from the sets, I have others which were not marked sms, and wonder now if they are... Report this Post to the Staff
biokemist6 Bedrock of the Community United States 12437 Posts	Posted 10/20/2009 5:14 pm Just because a grade is listed on a flip, that does not make it accurate. SMS coins should have fully struck details and have something of a polished appearance with high end SMS coins even having a cameo appearance. The problem occurs when you have a high end business strike and an average SMS strike- the coins can look quite similar. There have even been cases of TPGs attributing them wrongly and this can even occur on the current satin finish mint set coins. As far as I know, there are no specific diagnostics to distinguish them. Unfortunately, high end business strike 40% silver halves are quite rare so any half that has a really nice appearance is almost always an SMS coin. Report this Post to the Staff
noo_mis_muh_tist New Member United States 37 Posts	Posted 10/20/2009 6:33 pm Quote: There have even been cases of TPGs attributing them wrongly and this can even occur on the current satin finish mint set coins. As far as I know, there are no specific diagnostics to distinguish them. Unfortunately, high end business strike 40% silver halves are quite rare so any half that has a really nice appearance is almost always an SMS coin. If there are no specific diagnostics to distinguish them, how would anyone know if a TPG made an inaccurate designation, and should I expect NGC to get it right? Report this Post to the Staff
Morgans Dad Pillar of the Community United States 5608 Posts	Posted 10/21/2009 12:17 am This topic has been discussed before, I seem to remember some members, my self included, that believe we can tell a good business strike coin from the SMS coins. I know this is not impossible to do, when they are in Uncirculated condition, once circulated, I believe the other members words were" all bets are off", where I still believe if the coin is not a total disaster, one can discern the difference of the two coins, I know the very clean strike of a business coin can not meet up to the obvious, Proof-like, polished SMS coin, of course just like the earlier topic( around 4-6 months ago), this is just my opinion.....PS: I collect among many other things, proof sets, also mint sets, and I have done many hours of looking and examining the SMS coins,some are very, very sweet. Once you are very familiar, you can tell the two apart...... Report this Post to the Staff
jbuck Moderator United States 188130 Posts	Posted 10/21/2009 10:05 am Quote: This topic has been discussed before, I seem to remember some members, my self included, that believe we can tell a good business strike coin from the SMS coins. Was it this one? Here is another one I found. Coin Collector Since 1978 Avatar Old Avatar 7070 Eisenhower Australia Canada World CCF Members on eBay CCF eBay Search Engine Report this Post to the Staff
Conder101 Bedrock of the Community United States 17884 Posts	Posted 10/22/2009 4:09 pm Quote: Unfortunately, high end business strike 40% silver halves are quite rare so any half that has a really nice appearance is almost always an SMS coin. And to cover themselves the TPG will almost always call it an SMS whether it is or not. Quote: If there are no specific diagnostics to distinguish them, how would anyone know if a TPG made an inaccurate designation, and should I expect NGC to get it right? Well when you take a coin out of an original bank roll, send it in and it comes back SMS, or you send in a piece out of a SMS set and it comes back as a business strike these can be good signs. Report this Post to the Staff
Morgans Dad Pillar of the Community United States 5608 Posts	Posted 10/22/2009 6:57 pm Jbuck, That is the ticket, good job!! Report this Post to the Staff
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