Lady Bird Johnson’s Diary Entry Regarding Presentation of First Four Kennedy Halves to Jacqueline

JCH22

Lady Bird Johnson wrote a diary as First Lady. The following excerpts detail her February 28, 1964 meeting with Jacqueline Kennedy. The meeting was prompted by the Jacqueline’s correspondence regarding continuation of certain Arts/Whitehouse projects. During the close of that meeting Lady Bird presented her with the first four halves struck:

Attached pdf contains the full Diary entry regarding the meeting, and other events of the day.

WinLoseWin

I think there was a group of several JFK 1964 halves that sold as one lot in the Jacqueline Kennedy auction in 1996 at Sotheby's for something like $8k. The auction brought huge prices for everything so the condition of the coins may not have mattered.

A relative had the auction catalog and the lot was there but tried to look it up again later after the so-called SMS coins became news but did not find it again.

Always wondered if it have had any of the same type of finish. Seems there was a photo showing more than 4 coins just loose so there may not have been any of the ones referenced in the Lady Bird Johnson diary, or maybe one was in there.

Does not seem to be an online listing at Sotheby's at least if you don't have an acount. Maybe someone else with a catalog or account can check it out.

EDITED to add
Sotheby's link with video discussing the sale:

https://sothebys.com/en/videos/sothebys-on-the-legendary-jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-auction

JCH22

@WinLoseWin

Great info--much appreciated!

BLUEJAYWAY

Interesting bit if history.

JBK

I have a JFK half that was presented to a constituent by Senator Birch Bayh less than a month after Jackie got hers.

I'm sure mine isn't a special strike but it did precede the official release date by a couple weeks.

johnny9434

That's a cool letter to have

BLUEJAYWAY

Interesting that the half was referred to as "the JFK commemorative coin".

WinLoseWin

@JBK do you know if the recipient had some special standing with the senator or if there were multiple similar letters sent out?

Also brings up the question of to who and how many coins were distributed before public release. It sounds like some or perhaps many upper officials may have been given early access. Has any documentation ever been found discussing this?

Also for @JCH22 is it known when Proof coins were first minted in 1964? Wonder whether these could have been Proofs or only business strike related.

JBK

@WinLoseWin said:
@JBK do you know if the recipient had some special standing with the senator or if there were multiple similar letters sent out?

Also brings up the question of to who and how many coins were distributed before public release. It sounds like some or perhaps many upper officials may have been given early access. Has any documentation ever been found discussing this?

Also for @JCH22 is it known when Proof coins were first minted in 1964? Wonder whether these could have been Proofs or only business strike related.

Actually, thanks to some great detective work by some other members in the thread where I first showed this a few years ago, we know that he was a party "operative".

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/comment/12800992

I note that a photo posted in that thread shows people lined up outside the Treasury Department on the day the Bayh letter was written. So, it appears they were available at the Treasury Department a couple weeks before the "general distribution" - presumably at banks - that was mentioned in the letter.

Here's the coin that came with it. The consensus when I first posted it was to leave it as-is.

P.S. - sorry for hijacking this thread. 😬

JCH22

@WinLoseWin said:
....

Also for @JCH22 is it known when Proof coins were first minted in 1964? Wonder whether these could have been Proofs or only business strike related.

Don't know for sure, but based but based upon the below I think business strikes ( or specimens) were likely presented: