Why are Kennedy halves worth so little?

coinguy89

It seems that all of them are worth so little. I read in mags and books that there is almost no demand for them, but almost everyday on here I see a thread posting about Kennedys, if not two or three. What is the deal, is it the demand? I know that extreme proof kennedys in like DCAM-70 are expensive, but it seems very little else is. Could someone help explain this alitte. I myself, awhile ago was thinking of collecting these but, everyone told me that they are a complete waste of time and money, none of them will be worth anything in the future. Your thoughts?

Gonfunko

I think that Russ will have a few words for you....
I completed a set in circulated, MS and proof. In the condition my set is in, they won't be worth much, but it's still a fun set to complete. Value isn't everything, after all.

coinguy89

<< <i>I think that Russ will have a few words for you.... >>



Well I would like him to, i've been hearing that kind of stuff from dealers.

DHeath

Scott,

Why do you collect? If it's because you enjoy the coins, dealers telling you they are worthless works to your advantage. As for them being worth little, you'll have to do your own homework to know what's worth a premium, but spend a little time on one of the auction sites looking at prices realized.

ddbird

<<there is almost no demand for them>>

Thats cuase they are only wanted by bald men who are in denial about their own self image...

Russ

It makes sense that the average Kennedy would have little value. They were minted in huge numbers.



<< <i>awhile ago was thinking of collecting these but, everyone told me that they are a complete waste of time and money, none of them will be worth anything in the future. >>



That's a good suggestion and one you should heed.

Russ, NCNE

coinguy89

<< <i>Scott,

Why do you collect? If it's because you enjoy the coins, dealers telling you they are worthless works to your advantage. As for them being worth little, you'll have to do your own homework to know what's worth a premium, but spend a little time on one of the auction sites looking at prices realized. >>



Well, I collect for the enjoyment, but I would like something that would have some value to it. I was just wondering.

tgilliams

PR69DCAM's are not rare at all in this series, until you get back into the 1964-1971 kennedy's. the PR70DCAM's are somewhat rare and much nicer than the 69's, own a few and amazed at the difference in one grade. that's why there's such a premium. not an expert, but my view with limited experience.

DHeath

Fair enough. There are several Kennedys that are easliy sellable in excess of $10,000. There are MANY that are sellable in excess of $500. It would certainly be fun for you to find one or two of those you could buy for $10.


Edited to remove an extra 0 from my $500.

coynclecter

The Kennedy's are beautiful and the demand is strong but the price issue is a result of the huge supply. These proof sets were made by the millions and the survival rate must be 95% +

PhillyJoe

Number one, always collect what you enjoy (or at least you can resell to buy what you enjoy) The Kennedy series spans 40 years and has numerous compositions and varieties. A registry set with just the proofs will be in excess of 50 coins. Many are reasonable, the top ones are cost prohibitive. Proofs from the 80's and 90's are generally inexpensive and you will wait a long time for your investment to grow. I quickly found out that I would rather have a few nice '64's than one from every year. But now when I find nice '64's, I see people named Russ, Marty, Don, Ken also watching. And that's half the fun.

Joe

Russ

<< <i>I quickly found out that I would rather have a few nice '64's >>



A few? Rumor has it that you remodeled your house to add another room just to store your stash!

Russ, NCNE

DHeath

Coyn,

That's true. They're abundant, and most in very high grade. Joe has it exactly right, the later date stuff is all pretty nice, and likely won't ever be difficult. What's quite interesting to me is that this series is contemporary. There are varieties to discover, PQ coins to find, information to reveal, and good research to be done. It's pretty fertile ground, and the coins are available and inexpensive. Even now, finding some of the information is forensic. It's a good time to study the coins.


BTW - Joe, you're right, that's indeed half the fun.

1956Quarter

Well, there is a demand for them, so the mags and books are wrong. They are certainly not widlfire of course, but demand is there. Kennedys are a special series in that nearly every coin in a set was minted in the ultra modern era. To put a non-proof set together, one does not need a lot of cash. They are fairly easy to obtain in good grades, and great for the beginner. You cannot say that about any other "modern" set. Cents go back to 1909, even a short set goes back to the mid 50's. Jefferson Nickles go back to 1938, Roosevelt Dimes go back to 1948, and Washington Quarters go back to 1932. Kennedys only go back to 1964. The challenge of the 30,'s, 40's and 50's dates is missing from this series, which makes it easier to assemble. Some dealers will tell you they are a waste of time. This is not true. Translated, for them it means, they bring no money, and are not worth dealing with. Some dealers only like to deal in coins that bring some decent profits for the effort, others (mom and pop deals), will cater to everyone, and stock a large variety. This is hard to do in todays market so patronized your mom and pop shops when you can. The big guys will survive fine. Collecting Kennedys depends totally on what kind of collection you want. If your going to attempt a circulated set, I'd say, sure, do something else, your wasting your time. If your going to try to slap a basic Unc set together without proofs, then I'd say you should collect them because you like them, just don't have any expectations. If you want to put together a nice higher grade set with proofs with the intention of staying with at least say MS-63 or better on all of the common dates, MS-65 on the keys, MS-65 Cameos on the 65, 66 & 67 SMS coins, and PF-65 to PF-66 on the other proofs, then I'd say it would not be a waste of time, and maybe in a few years you'll have something. There is never any guarantee with any set you wish to put together. This higher grade set is what I am just starting. Its enough of a challenge to keep me occupied, and not make be go broke. I'm paying particular attention to the key dates and getting them in the better grades, and being particular about the common dates. I will have fun with this set. On the far end of the scale, you can do what Russ does and go all out no hold barred and get the absolute top grade for every coin. I personally don't want to go that far, but more power to him. Kennedys may be ultra moderns, but already some tough key dates have appeared with values that have appreciated quite well, and in fairly recent dates too. If you like Kennedys, by all means collect them. Choose how nice you want the set to be, match that with your expectations, and go for it.

ccr

Sometimes I think about the retail selling potential and sometimes I don`t. I have a 1964 - 1985 Whitman Folder complete in BU condition because I like them. I`m planning to complete the next part from 1986 - 2003 Whitman Folder too because I like them. They maybe right as there is about 15 - 25 Million a year produced typically. On the other hand, production is only about 10% of what they where 35 years ago. I don`t collect them to the extent as Russ but, I like the Kennedies and the BU 1964 - 1985 Whitman Folder looks pretty good when completed.

mirabela

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if, when I'm an old man, Kennedies are very popular. Their situation reminds me a bit of the Morgan dollar. Not real popular in its day, regarded by many as ugly. Didn't circulate widely, outside of certain regional niches. Huge numbers stashed away in mint state. Nevertheless, common date Morgans in MS63 bring 30-45 bucks even though there are millions upon millions of them, just because people like them (now) and they're beautiful. Sure, intrinsic value of bullion counts for a little with Morgans in a way that isn't true for most Kennedies, but even total junk Morgans now sell for half again melt value. I think, if a person takes the long view and wants to get in on the ground floor of something, they might be a really good series to get involved with. Some of these coins in ultra-high mint state might be *really* valuable many years down the road when it's pretty well established that there are only so many of them and no more to be "made." Who knows.

I haven't paid much attention to them myself, beyond trying to put together a date/mint set of business strikes out of circulation. I've been through a lot of rolls, and I'm really very surprised at how hard it is to find some of the more recent ones. I find 40% silver ones one after another, but there are still a good dozen holes in my album waiting for coins minted within the last ten years. I don't expect what I'm doing to ever be worth more than face, since nobody will pay for an AU55 of something when there are millions of cheap ones in mint state. Still, there are a good many 90's coins that it's darned near impossible to find w/o paying someone for a BU one. In a way, not too different from some of the CC Morgans.

BillJones

Kennedy half dollars are very popular coins. It's just that once you go below the highest grades, the supply goes up so much that the coins are not worth that much more than their melt value. It's a matter of supply and demand, the number of pieces that have been saved is very high, which lowers the value.

stman

<< <i>Why are Kennedy halves worth so little? >>



Please don't get me going.

cladking

<< <i>Kennedy half dollars are very popular coins. It's just that once you go below the highest grades, the supply goes up so much that the coins are not worth that much more than their melt value. It's a matter of supply and demand, the number of pieces that have been saved is very high, which lowers the value. >>



This is pretty much the gist of what I was going to say. There are large numbers of
collectors for the typical coins and large numbers of typical coins saved in rolls, bags,
mint sets, and collections. In many cases, though, the typical coin is pretty low qual-
ity. The '71-P for instance is normally seen in much lower than choice condition.

If you like these coins they can make a great set despite what Russ says. But to be
sure the typical coins in most cases won't bring large premiums in the future because
the typical coins will be plentiful. While a few dates don't fit this, most do. Choice coins
will be tough in many cases and gems are tough in most cases.

A nice choice set of these assembled one coin at a time is a challenge and will contain
many nice gems by the time it's complete. Whether it will ever be worth much more than
the fun of assembling it is open to conjecture.

DHeath

I agree with all the posts above, but would like to add the series offers far more than most set builders are aware of. There are plenty of doubled-die and tripled-die coins, abraded die, clashed die, rotated reverse, off-metal, cuds, off-centers, lamination errors, struck-thru, etc. For those that like unusual, there's the 64 SMS coinage. It's quite poorly documented. There are silver MS coins, silver proofs, SMS coins that are neither MS or Proof, matte finish coins, clad MS, clad, proofs, a few hard dates, and some well known varieties like the AH. It's likely the last half-dollar coin intended for circulation, and may well be our last big coin. They are still available raw. There's plenty of fun to be had if you enjoy looking at coins. I figure those are all pretty good reasons for collectors to enjoy them.

Stuart

<< Why are Kennedy halves worth so little? >>

... Because Russ controls the entire world market for Kennedy Halves (especially those AH 1964's) and since he's still in the accumulation phase he's trying not to run the price up too much until he owns them all

cladking

<< <i>I agree with all the posts above, but would like to add the series offers far more than most set builders are aware of. There are plenty of doubled-die and tripled-die coins, abraded die, clashed die, rotated reverse, off-metal, cuds, off-centers, lamination errors, struck-thru, etc. For those that like unusual, there's the 64 SMS coinage. It's quite poorly documented. There are silver MS coins, silver proofs, SMS coins that are neither MS or Proof, matte finish coins, clad MS, clad, proofs, a few hard dates, and some well known varieties like the AH. It's likely the last half-dollar coin intended for circulation, and may well be our last big coin. They are still available raw. There's plenty of fun to be had if you enjoy looking at coins. I figure those are all pretty good reasons for collectors to enjoy them. >>



Curiously enough there are probably a few SMS coins which are proof.

There are also off metal pieces from some of the 6 transition years. With
all known pieces being extremely rare or mere rumor.

...and don't forget the issues which are mint set only or mint set and special order only.

...or the dates which weren't available in mint sets.

It's a huge and diverse series which adds to its charms and challenges.

CalGold

<< <i>everyone told me that they are a complete waste of time and money, none of them will be worth anything in the future. Your thoughts? >>



Coins don't have to have to be rare and expensive or have great potential "investment" value to be fun to collect. The fact that you can assemble a nice set for relatively little money means that you won't have to really stress out about the future resale value.

Don Heath probably has more pure fun collecting than most other people who post here because he is not stressed out about his "investment" and he does really does not care whehter others think his modern sets are "worth collecting."

Coin collectors spend far too much time worrying about the future value of their coins. Nobody wants to take a loss, but as has been said here many many times, coins are not an investment and you should not spend more than you can afford to lose.

CG

SemperFI

I like collecting the Kennedy Uncirculated Series. I don't care if they are worth anything. I just like trying to collect as many high grades per year as possible for as little money as possible. In the recent years of circulated Kennedys, it is hard to get a nice coin above MS66 or MS67 and they have been making very few of them in todays standards. Both P+D mints together don't even mint 6 million coins compared to the 200-800 million - 1 billion coins in other denominations. To me, Kennedy's are rare and for the low prices makes it even better.

I really do not go for the MS68's unless the price is right but mainly collect what I can afford.

coynclecter

They are beautiful coins and you don't need to spend a lot to collect a set.

Just because there is a huge supply that supresses the value is no reason not to collect and enjoy.

DaveG

I've been collecting Kennedies from "circulation" and putting them into a Whitman folder for several years.

It's fun to go to the bank and get some rolls, look through them for silver coins and recent coins (harder to get than you might think) and spend the remainder.

I'm not worried about them ever being worth more than face value and finding the silver coins (sometimes a whole roll of 90%ers!) or an occasional impaired proof coin makes it a treasure hunt.

After all, it's a hobby - have some fun!

ksteelheader

Why would anyone want to collect coins that look like this?
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