Kennedy half dollar
50-cent piece depicting John F Kennedy minted after his assassination in 1963
The Kennedy half dollar, first minted in 1964, is a fifty-cent coin issued by the United States Mint. Intended as a memorial to the assassinated 35th president of the United States John F. Kennedy, it was authorized by Congress just over a month after his death. Use of existing works by Mint sculptors Gilroy Roberts and Frank Gasparro allowed dies to be prepared quickly, and striking of the new coins began in January 1964.
The silver coins were hoarded upon their release in March 1964 by collectors and those interested in a memento of the late president. Although the Mint greatly increased production, the denomination was seldom seen in circulation. Continued rises in the price of silver increased the hoarding—many early Kennedy half dollars have been melted for their silver content. Starting with 1965-dated coins, the percentage of fine silver was reduced from 90% to 40% (silver clad), but even with this change the coin saw little circulation.
In 1971, silver was eliminated entirely from the half dollar. Though production increased, the clad coin saw only a moderate increase in circulation; by 1980, usage had gradually fallen to the point where the half was only occasionally seen in circulation. A special design for the reverse of the half dollar was issued for the United States Bicentennial and was struck in 1975 and 1976.
“Kennedy half dollar” enters the record as 50-cent piece depicting John F Kennedy minted after his assassination in 1963. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kennedy, half and dollar can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q631456. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 1965, 1971 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kennedy half dollar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.