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 Replies: 12 / Views: 1,379 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4867 Posts |
I don't know if anyone has noticed, just an observation on my part but I was cutting open Kennedy halves from the mint cellos to spend. I was comparing the coins from the 70's to the 2000's. I have concluded the modern halves have smaller portraits (front and back)compared to those of the 70's. And the reeds look slightly longer on the 70's coins. In a way the 2000's look a bit thinner but I think its an illusion. I weighed them both and both came out to .4 oz. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
594 Posts |
Quote:I was cutting open Kennedy halves from the mint cellos to spend.    Spoken like a true non-collector. I'll buy them off you for face value if your just going to spend them. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4867 Posts |
They were ones I didn't like. Been slowly putting together a set and a lot of what I get on ebay have been being junk, heavy toning or too many contact marks. Didn't think they were worth the trouble of selling. Edited by TheForce
09/27/2011 12:44 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2150 Posts |
Quote:I was cutting open Kennedy halves from the mint cellos to spend.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4867 Posts |
Rest assured, I only do that to the coins I feel are junk. :)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3278 Posts |
I believe your observations are correct, at least the changes in the size of Kennedy's portrait.
I'm not sure where but I seem to recall reading about decreasing size of Kennedy's bust on the later date coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1431 Posts |
I believe it was in '86 or '87 that they switched to a drastically lower relief.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4867 Posts |
I never knew that. I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned in the Red Book...unless I missed it! Oh and just an FYI, I just spent those halves on a gallon of milk! ha! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
Did they also do a change to the bust around 1994-1995? Because I have a '94 and a '96, and the bust looks slightly smaller and more detailed (still low relief). I kind of noticed the same thing with Washington quarters of those same years. |
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Valued Member
United States
193 Posts |
I got a pair of 2010's last year and the thing I noticed is thatthe lettering seems to be much thinner than any from the earlier ones
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4867 Posts |
I looked in my Red Book again to see if I missed something and there is no mention of these changes. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
There are numerous minor-moderate hub design changes for all coin series, too many to list in the RedBook. If you want to learn about all of the changes for each series, you will need to delve into the series specialty books such as A Guide Book of Franklin and Kennedy half Dollars. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
It's also a good idea to form a reference collection. Almost every single year now days there are minor changes to the reverse, obverse, or both. Sometimes these changes are very dramatic. With a reference collection you'll have something to compare a coin to so you can tell if it's right or not. There are actually mules out there such as 1974 quarters with 1973 reverses as well as with 1972 reverses. I believe most of the mules are made inadvertantly at the beginning of the year when the technician forgets to change the reverse die. If the reverse die is in good shape he might get confused and think he already changed it. It's also possible that they are sometimes short on dies and intentionally reuse older dies. The scarcity of 1971 quarters relative the mintage might suggest a few 1970 obverse dies were used in '71. There are also instances of proof reverse dies being used for late '60's coins.
There are also dies that were prepared for proof production but before completion ended up being used for business strikes. This may account for the type "b" clads. There are no doubt more to be discpovered out there since circulation coinage was never well searched and mintages of these would tend to usually be well under half a million.
You won't find such things in regular mint sets but there is a 1981-P type "d" reverse that can be found in mint sets as well as numerous varieties.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
Edited by cladking
09/28/2011 9:55 pm
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Replies: 12 / Views: 1,379 |
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Posted 09/27/2011 11:01 am
