What was the release date for the Kennedy Half in 1964?

EagleEye · May 27, 2014 12:57AM

We are probably close to the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy half. Anyone know when they were released to the public?

JazzmanJAB · May 27, 2014 1:03AM

March 24, 1964.

Per The Other side of the Street

291fifth · May 27, 2014 2:19AM

Hoard them, hoard them, hoard them all!

ProofArtworkonCircs · May 27, 2014 11:36AM

I got my first Kennedy half on Wednesday March 25,1964. It is a day I remember well. It was the first warm day of the year and I was playing hooky from work. Even the insects were out. Being Wednesday, the banks did not open to the public until 12 noon. They got their money shipments from the Fed on those mornings. At noon a crowd of people were at the bank. There was a limit of one per customer. Everybody paid with a dollar bill hoping for a second one in change. We got older halves instead. That was the beginning of the disappearance of halves from circulation, although it took a while longer before they all disappeared.

Later that afternoon, I then got my first root canal with a silver spike. Years later I realized the hard way that soft gutta percha was a much better choice. The tooth is gone, but I still have the half.

A day or so before the initial release, the Fed furnished a Kennedy half for the base of the Constitution's mainmast. This was a story Coin World initially refused to believe because nobody could get an early release of that half.

MGLICKER · May 27, 2014 12:01PM

Nearly 50 years of clad. That is a wake up.

ricko · May 28, 2014 12:57AM

How soon after did the search for AH Kennedy's start?? Cheers, RickO

claychaser · May 28, 2014 1:25AM

So for the 50 anniversary, the release would be March 24, 2015?

Just so happens the Baltimore Expo opens March 26, 2015!

ProofArtworkonCircs · May 28, 2014 3:13AM

<<How soon after did the search for AH Kennedy's start?? Cheers, RickO>>

Good question. Bill Edwards documented them in 1977 and stated he knew of no previous documentation. That seems like an awful long time before it was noted - 13 years.

Incidentaly Mrs. Kennedy's request on the design was less hair part and more hair highlights.

ProofArtworkonCircs · May 28, 2014 4:13AM

On second thought, 1977 might be the date of my copy and not Bill Edwards original publication.
There might be an old Coin World Collectors' Clearinghouse article on this.

What was the release date for the Kennedy Half in 1964?

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