1964-2014(W) 999 Fine Gold Kennedy Half Proof

giorgio11

I wonder if the planned 1964-2014(W) gold Kennedy half proof struck in pure gold and weighing about 0.75 oz will be included in the Kennedy half registry sets, or do you consider it a commemorative issue?

Best Regards,

George

MsMorrisine

This will be an interesting issue legally as the half dollar is prescribed as follows:


(a) The Secretary of the Treasury may mint and issue only the following coins:

(2) a half dollar coin that is 1.205 inches in diameter and weighs 11.34 grams.

(b) The half dollar, quarter dollar, and dime coins are clad coins with 3 layers of metal. The 2 identical outer layers are an alloy of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. The inner layer is copper. The outer layers are metallurgically bonded to the inner layer and weigh at least 30 percent of the weight of the coin.




But the law allows for unspecified "numismatic items"

The 2009 UHR is an example of a coin created under this part of the law.


(a) The Secretary of the Treasury—
(1) shall mint and issue coins described in section 5112 of this title in amounts the Secretary decides are necessary to meet the needs of the United States;
(2) may prepare national medal dies and strike national and other medals if it does not interfere with regular minting operations but may not prepare private medal dies;
(3) may prepare and distribute numismatic items; and
(4) may mint coins for a foreign country if the minting does not interfere with regular minting operations, and shall prescribe a charge for minting the foreign coins equal to the cost of the minting (including labor, materials, and the use of machinery).



it will be interesting to see if the Mint follows through with minting these as half dollars as they are very concerned about following the law. They could give them another face value, but what as they are not a full ounce, so $20 or $50 seems out.


If they do go out at a half dollar, they may just be part of one of the registry sets.

MsMorrisine

oh, as for being a commemorative issue, Congress has in some of the same section of law prescribing only 2 commemorative issues per year and Congress has been following that in the past several years. This year's are the civil rights act and the baseball hall of fame. So, technically these can't be commemoratives as that would not be the legal description for their creation.

If the mint can't figure a way to mint these legally as coins they may wind up as medals as the 2011 9/11 10th anniversary issues did. On the other hand they did find a way to make the 2009 UHR as a coin.

giorgio11

If the pure gold one-ounce AGEs are $50 face and the pure gold half-ounce First Spouses are $10 face, maybe the 0.75-oz pure gold Kennedys will be $30 face coins

Or not.

Best Regards,

George

giorgio11

Wonder if anybody has heard any updates on this? I have checked the Mint schedule but of course nothing shows there.

Best Regards,

George