Kennedy half dollar value: which years are silver
1964 is 90% silver, 1965 to 1970 are 40%, and everything after is clad. The one nobody checks is the 1967 in a coin jar.
In the Buck index
Kennedy Half DollarUnited States · 1964 · Silver (.900)$19.64 to $25.32
Franklin Half DollarUnited States · 1948–1963 · Silver (.900)$26.67 to $32.46
The Kennedy half was authorised weeks after the assassination in November 1963 and struck from January 1964. People kept them. That is why a coin with a mintage of 430 million in its first year is still easy to find in original condition, and why it stopped circulating almost immediately.
The value question has a clean answer, and it is a date.
The three eras
| Years | Composition | Rough value |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | 90% silver | $19 to $25 |
| 1965 to 1970 | 40% silver | around $4 to $6 |
| 1971 on | copper-nickel clad | 50 cents |
Buck prices the 1964 at about $19.64 to $25.32, which tracks the silver in it rather than any collector premium: at 12.5 g of 90% silver, the metal does most of the work.
The 1967 in the jar
The 40% years are the ones people miss. Between 1965 and 1970 the half dollar kept a silver core while the dime and quarter had already gone clad, so a 1967 Kennedy half sitting in a change jar is worth several dollars and looks exactly like a modern one.
The edge gives it away. A clad half shows a copper stripe at the rim; a 40% silver one shows a much fainter, greyer line, and a 90% one shows none at all.
1970-D is the one to look for. It was struck only for mint sets, never for circulation, so it is the scarcest business-strike Kennedy of the silver era.
After 1971
Clad halves are worth fifty cents, with three exceptions worth checking:
- 1970-D, above, mint sets only.
- 1987 P and D, also mint sets only, never released into circulation.
- 1998-S matte proof silver, a low-mintage collector issue.
From 2002 the Mint stopped making half dollars for circulation entirely and only produces them for collectors, so any half dated after that in your change came out of somebody's collection.
The Franklin that came before
The Kennedy replaced the Franklin half, struck 1948 to 1963, which is 90% silver for its whole run and worth roughly $26 to $32. Franklins are underappreciated: they are a short, completable series in real silver, and full-bell-lines examples, where the lines across the bottom of the Liberty Bell are unbroken, carry a large premium.
If you have a tin of halves, sort by date first and worry about grade second. The date does ninety percent of the work.
