Back To My Roots, and a Beginner's Guide To Identifying Accented Hair Halves

FlyingAl

Every now and then, I love to go back to where I really got my start in the classic side of the hobby - cherry-picking. Most days, Im after some bigger and better coins than the below, but I'm always on the lookout for small scores. After all, those small scores financed a significant portion of my collection.

Storytime - way back when, when I was a freshman in high school, we'd get a couple snow days a year. Charge $5-10 to shovel some driveways, and on a good day you could make $60. I first used that cash to buy a 1964 Proof set, and I loved the coins. The half had a touch of frost on the obverse, and was overall lovely. I had known by then of the Accented Hair halves, and began to search for a couple of them on Ebay. A few weeks later, I see a listing of 6 Proof sets - 4 1964s, 2 1960s. The halves appear to be Accented, but the crappy pics were a hard sell. I bought the lot for $110, and when they got to me my jaw hit the floor. 4 incredible Accented Hairs with noticeable frost popped out of the cello, and one 1960 dime was the DDR FS-801.

I sent those coins in, and they graded 66CAM x2 and 67CAM x2. They got sold for ten times my purchase price, and funded most of my contrasted 1942 Proof set (everything but the half and an extra quarter). The dime went 67 for an added bonus (I still have that one and still think it deserves the CAM).

Fast forward to today, and I picked up two more 1964 sets after a long hiatus of searching those grounds. 1964 Proof sets go for about $10 more than 4 years ago, but a decent Accented Hair goes for $110. Break even line is generally PR66.

Out of those two sets, we got:

A decent PR65 quality Accented Hair with some common hairlining and spotting. I'll probably end up letting this one go raw rather than spend the cost to grade it and make a little.


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And this absolutely wonderful PR68 quality Accented. I'll attach a video of this one too. Incredible mirrors, no spots, and only minor striations.


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VIDEO - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED WATCH
https://www.mycollect.com/posts/161120
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Why make this post? Well - I've found that a good percentage of collectors can't actually identify the Accented Hair Half from a normal 1964 Proof. I hope this might change that for a few collectors.

There are a lot of weird ways that you'll hear collectors try to tell you how to cherrypick these. Here's my advice - anyone who tells you to identify these from anything but the accented hairlines is going to lead you astray. Always always always cherry-pick based on the most obvious identifier - in this case, the actual accented hair.

Here is a comparison of the two coins.

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Now I know what you might be thinking - gee, real helpful. Where am I looking? Here's the answer - the hair.


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MOST IMPORTANT THING TO NOTICE - Accented Hair lines are INCUSE, whereas the normal hair will be raised. That is especially important, because that can really cause the lines to pop when lighting is angled right. Notice that there are three extra hairlines, all on the right of the V. An extension to the main left hairline is also present on the Accented Hair. I HIGHLY encourage you to look at the MyCollect video that I posted so you can see how these lines present in hand - they really pop obviously.

Common Pitfalls (what not to do)

Oftentimes, you will see advice to identify these coins by the I in LIBERTY or by the reverse. I'll address each of these, and why you should NOT use those markers.

I in LIBERTY - while it is unique to Accented coins, it's small and rarely shows in pictures. If you can't see the fairly large hairlines, but somehow can see the tiny serif missing from the I, perhaps ask yourself why on earth the hairlines aren't there too. And for example - look at my comparison images above. The I in LIBERTY is not visible.

Reverse identification - there are two reverse types to Proof 1964 Kennedy Halves - the broken rays reverse (Straight FG) and the solid rays reverse (Flared FG). I will not present the differences for fear of confusing people, but here's the big note- if you try and cherrypick based on the reverse, you WILL OFTEN GET IT WRONG. Why? The broken rays is not unique to Accented Hairs, and a good chunk of normal hair 1964s have broken rays.

Hopefully a couple of you pulled something useful from this, and for you veterans reading this.... don't tear into me too hard.

FlyingAl

And a couple more fun images I took while I had the coins out:

braddick

Excellent write-up.
I have also always depended on the sideburn. So easy to spot the difference between the two.

SanctionII

Nice thread, one that resonates with me.

A number of years ago I stopped by one local shop and bought an OGP 1964 proof set for $24.00 that contained a frosted AH half dollar. I thought that was a great pickup. The very next day I stopped by another local shop and bought 6 OGP 1964 proof sets for $10.00 each ($60.00). All 6 sets also contained frosted HA half dollars. I submitted them all for grading. None received a CAM designation but they all graded PF65, PF66 and PF67.

I also stopped by a local show many years ago and was allowed by a proof set dealer to look through some new OGP yellow envelope proof sets that he had just purchased. I found multiple 1964 sets that had drop dead DCAM AH half dollars. The frost on both sides of the devices was the thickest I had ever seen and the mirrored fields were very deep. The dealer was selling AH sets for $110.00. The problem with the coins were that everyone of them had large numbers of large milk spots (that were yellow/orange in color) on both sides. Even with the DCAM frost and mirrored fields the half dollars were ugly. So I passed on buying them.

Your story about shoveling snow as a kid for $5.00, reminded me of my childhood growing up in Denver. When I was in elementary school and middle school (fall 1961 to spring 1971) I shoveled snow during the winter for $0.50 to $1.00.

MFeld

@FlyingAl said:

There are a lot of weird ways that you'll hear collectors try to tell you how to cherrypick these. Here's my advice - anyone who tells you to identify these from anything but the accented hairlines is going to lead you astray. Always always always cherry-pick based on the most obvious identifier - in this case, the actual accented hair.

Here is a comparison of the two coins.

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I don’t mean to lead anyone astray by bringing this up 😉 but…
Usually, I look at the sideburn first. My recollection is that it’s noticeably less detailed on the Accented Hair examples.

Have you seen exceptions to that?

FlyingAl

@MFeld said:

@FlyingAl said:

There are a lot of weird ways that you'll hear collectors try to tell you how to cherrypick these. Here's my advice - anyone who tells you to identify these from anything but the accented hairlines is going to lead you astray. Always always always cherry-pick based on the most obvious identifier - in this case, the actual accented hair.

Here is a comparison of the two coins.

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I don’t mean to lead anyone astray by bringing this up 😉 but…
Usually, I look at the sideburn first. My recollection is that it’s noticeably less detailed on the Accented Hair examples.

Have you seen exceptions to that?

Mark, I actually thought of you when I wrote that line, because I knew that you went by the sideburn. I almost put in an exception of "unless you're talking to MFeld", but thought against it.

It's my experience that you cannot cherrypick off of the sideburn reliably. It's similar to the I in LIBERTY where if you can see the sideburn but not the hairlines, maybe check again. To be honest, I've actually never seen any difference myself in the two sideburns and have never used it.

MFeld

@FlyingAl said:

@MFeld said:

@FlyingAl said:

There are a lot of weird ways that you'll hear collectors try to tell you how to cherrypick these. Here's my advice - anyone who tells you to identify these from anything but the accented hairlines is going to lead you astray. Always always always cherry-pick based on the most obvious identifier - in this case, the actual accented hair.

Here is a comparison of the two coins.

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I don’t mean to lead anyone astray by bringing this up 😉 but…
Usually, I look at the sideburn first. My recollection is that it’s noticeably less detailed on the Accented Hair examples.

Have you seen exceptions to that?

Mark, I actually thought of you when I wrote that line, because I knew that you went by the sideburn. I almost put in an exception of "unless you're talking to MFeld", but thought against it.

It's my experience that you cannot cherrypick off of the sideburn reliably. It's similar to the I in LIBERTY where if you can see the sideburn but not the hairlines, maybe check again. To be honest, I've actually never seen any difference myself in the two sideburns and have never used it.

Thanks, Alex. You have an excellent eye - take a look at the sideburns in your own comparison pictures you already posted in this thread. I see a distinct difference. Perhaps I should have pointed out both the sideburn and the hair above the ear.

Edited to add:
For a comparison of the sideburn and the hair above the ear, below, see the other images you posted (with weaker sideburn and hair above ear on the top/Accented Hair picture).

FlyingAl

@MFeld
Mark, to further my point here I will add this caveat - there's a lot more you can see in hand, and even more you can attribute by when you know what to do (given you particularly know well what to look for). For beginners, maybe just stick to the major pickups.

For example, take this Proof set.

I can't see the sideburn, nor the I in LIBERTY, nor even the reverse rays. But I know for a fact it's not an accented hair, because I'm not seeing those incuse lines. Those pics are actually somewhat the norm for these kind of sets.

To reply to your most recent comment - I do see the difference, but it depends heavily on angles. You'd need the coin in hand to see, which is extremely prohibitive for cherrypicking.

MFeld

@FlyingAl said:
@MFeld
Mark, to further my point here I will add this caveat - there's a lot more you can see in hand, and even more you can attribute by when you know what to do (given you particularly know well what to look for). For beginners, maybe just stick to the major pickups.

For example, take this Proof set.

I can't see the sideburn, nor the I in LIBERTY, nor even the reverse rays. But I know for a fact it's not an accented hair, because I'm not seeing those incuse lines. Those pics are actually somewhat the norm for these kind of sets.

To reply to your most recent comment - I do see the difference, but it depends heavily on angles. You'd need the coin in hand to see, which is extremely prohibitive for cherrypicking.

Excellent points, as expected, Alex.

KiwiNumi

I really appreciate the write up. I'll save those photos. Nice photos as well you're one of my favorite users on this site.

winesteven

Here’s my Accented Hair Kennedy (I took the easy way out - did not cherry-pick, just bought it already graded):

Steve

P0CKETCHANGE

Alex, an excellent post with clear explanations and pragmatic advice.

BLUEJAYWAY

@SanctionII said:
Nice thread, one that resonates with me.

A number of years ago I stopped by one local shop and bought an OGP 1964 proof set for $24.00 that contained a frosted AH half dollar. I thought that was a great pickup. The very next day I stopped by another local shop and bought 6 OGP 1964 proof sets for $10.00 each ($60.00). All 6 sets also contained frosted HA half dollars. I submitted them all for grading. None received a CAM designation by the all graded PF65, PF66 and PF67.

I also stopped by a local show many years ago and was allowed by a proof set dealer to look through some new OGP yellow envelope proof sets that he had just purchased. I found multiple 1964 sets that had drop dead DCAM AH half dollars. The frost on both sides of the devices was the thickest I had ever seen and the mirrored fields were very deep. The dealer was selling AH sets for $110.00. The problem with the coins were that everyone of them had large numbers of large milk spots (that were yellow/orange in color) on both sides. Even with the DCAM frost and mirrored fields the half dollars were ugly. So I passed on buying them.

Your story about shoveling snow as a kid for $5.00, reminded me of my childhood growing up in Denver. When I was in elementary school and middle school (fall 1961 to spring 1971) I shoveled snow during the winter for $0.50 to $1.00.

I remember those .50-$1.00 snow shoveling days. Once in a great while we got stiffed on payment. In that case was no problem dumping all the shoveled snow back into the driveway.😀

BLUEJAYWAY

Thanks very much for this informative explanation. Perhaps would be wise to carry an example of the AH when attending shows as a visual reminder or this thread. Of course do not display either in public while at a dealers table.

oldabeintx

Super post and thread. Thanks all.

WAYNEAS

@FlyingAl
It is always a pleasure to read your informative posts.
Thanks for composing this one and sharing it on the forum.
Many of us older folks (I was around before the AH's were issued),
enjoy the hunt then and now.
For many new collectors this post will be an educational moment and for the seasoned collectors, a dusting off of a foggy mind.
In the early 60's and 70's, I was an I guy who never looked at the reverse but thru the course of time (I am now in my 70's), I look at every marker before I buy.
Again, thanks for sharing.
Wayne

4Redisin

Unfortunately, I've limited my collecting to BU Lincoln cents but since joining this place one member has gotten me interested in Trade dollars and now this. Who knew these coins were so common and what a great story behind the reason for the change. LOL, now I want one or ten! Thanks @FlyingAl.

SoCalBigMark

I cherry picked one using the KOM Russ's IPOTAD

Barberian

Excellent post. I definitely learned something.