1964 Kennedy Half Dollars 1964 to Date MS63

History

The half dollar was redesigned because of an assassination. President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas on November 22, 1963, and within days Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon told Mint Director Eva Adams that he wanted Kennedy's portrait placed on a silver coin; the quarter, half dollar and dollar were all discussed, and Jacqueline Kennedy favored the half dollar because it would not displace another president, then Benjamin Franklin. Existing law barred a design change more often than every 25 years, and the Franklin half was only 15 years old, so Congress acted, passing Public Law 88-256, approved December 30, 1963, just 38 days after the assassination. Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts later recorded that the Mint was told to begin striking in January, about four weeks away, which he called almost an impossibility. Once released, the coins were pulled from commerce almost immediately by a public keeping them as mementos, and the denomination never recovered its role in everyday transactions.

Details

Gilroy Roberts designed the obverse and Assistant Engraver Frank Gasparro the reverse, both adapting models the two had completed in 1961 for Kennedy's presidential inaugural medal rather than working from a design competition. The coin was struck in 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper, weighing 12.50 grams, measuring 30.6 millimeters across and 2.15 millimeters thick, with a reeded edge. Philadelphia produced 273,304,004 circulation strikes dated 1964 and Denver 156,205,446, for a total of 429,509,450 business strikes, plus Philadelphia proofs reported at between 3,950,762 and 3,950,962 pieces. Philadelphia issues of this period carry no mint mark.

Features

The obverse carries Kennedy's left-facing portrait with LIBERTY around the upper rim, IN GOD WE TRUST in a straight line across the field with GOD and WE separated by the truncation of the neck, and the date wrapping the lower border. Gasparro's reverse adapts the Seal of the President of the United States, showing a heraldic eagle with arrows and an olive branch inside a full circle of stars, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and HALF DOLLAR around the periphery; on 1964 coins the mint mark sits beneath the point where the eagle's claws grasp the olive branch. The best-known variety of the date belongs to the proofs rather than the circulation strikes: the Accented Hair obverse, showing heavy hairlines above the ear, was softened at Jacqueline Kennedy's request, and PCGS estimates roughly 5 percent of the proof mintage shows the earlier treatment. A doubled die obverse, FS-101, is also recognized among the 1964 proofs.

Notable facts

• The composition changed to 40 percent silver clad in 1965, leaving 1964 as the only year of 90 percent silver circulation-quality Kennedy half dollars.
• Denver began production on January 30, 1964, staged a ceremonial striking on February 11, and the new coin was first issued to the public on March 24.
• Each 1964 half dollar contains 0.36169 troy ounce of silver.
• The 90 percent silver 1964 Special Strike, a finish the Mint never offered for sale, is the rarity of the series, with roughly a dozen known and one Specimen 67 example bringing $108,000 at auction.
• PCGS has graded at least one 1964-D as high as MS68 and regards the Denver coins as generally better struck than those from Philadelphia.