Talk:Kennedy half dollar

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Kennedy half dollar is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

Kennedy half dollar is part of the United States Bicentennial coinage series, a featured topic. This is identified as among the best series of articles produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on March 24, 2014.

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Date	Process	Result
March 20, 2011	Featured article candidate	Promoted
July 22, 2013	Featured topic candidate	Promoted

Current status: Featured article

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Untitled

So are Kennedy coins minted after 1970 and not including any silver worth anything more than 50 cents? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.58.82.135 (talk) 20:54, 19 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Design change

The Design for the Kennedy half dollar changed sometime between 1982 and 1992 the back became less raised and more flat. Does anybody know when this happened?

Over the last few decades, the US Mint has been saving money on production costs by gradually reducing the relief of all coin designs. Compare a 1965 quarter to a 1998 quarter, or 1968 penny to a 1998 penny. This has been happening for forty years, and the half dollar is not excepted. - Deeplogic (talk) 17:09, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not all

The article incorrectly stated that all Kennedy halves minted in San Francisco were proofs. There was one exception; the 3 piece Bicentennial uncirculated set were minted in San Francisco, and the Kennedy half included was in fact a normal business strike. Corrected the article to reflect that. 75.70.123.215 (talk) 18:51, 13 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Proofs

Do proofs from '92 onwards actually have a the same silver content as the '64 coins? Not according to coinfacts.com: www.coinfacts.com/half_dollars/kennedy_half_dollars/1992s_half_dollar_silver.htm. I've seen many websites selling '92 onwards proof, claiming they are 90% silver. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.96.42.6 (talk) 09:13, 27 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Statue of Liberty 1986

I was surprised to find a half dollar coin from 1986 with the Statue of Liberty on it. I got it at the bank inside a roll of Kennedy half dollars. It is significantly lighter than the Kennedy half dollar, but it is marked as it if its honest to goodness US coinage. I thought this might be in commemoration of the Statue's anniversary and restoration. Does anyone know anything about this coin? Is it considered a Kennedy half dollar? Is it a Liberty half dollar? Should we mention it in this article? --ErinHowarth (talk) 23:35, 17 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's actually a commemorative and is listed properly here. (bigger image) Nice find in a roll! Someone's kid probably swiped it for smokes or something... ack! Bobby ^{I'm Here, Are You There?} 00:21, 18 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

infobox

the other us coin pages have infoboxes, that would be an improvememtn to this article. --ErinHowarth (talk) 23:40, 17 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This article is missing the specifications of the Kennedy half dollar for the first year, 1964. The first year, 1964, is supposed to be 90% silver. There are no specs regarding the 1964 silver half dollar. The article itself mentions how 1964 had 90% silver. However, there are no specs regarding gross weight in grams, etc..., for the 1964 90% silver Kennedy half dollar. Mr-Encyclopedia-Man (talk) 21:04, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That should not be a major issue, I'll add it later today. Just need to look up the specs on the coin world website.--Wehwalt (talk) 22:50, 6 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's in there now. I apologize for the ugliness, my colleague RHM22 is better at these things than I am, I will ask him for help with this. He hasn't been on much recently.--Wehwalt (talk) 00:48, 7 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for adding that. I would have done it myself but I rarely add any major content to WikiPedia. I am not familiar with Wiki's editing format. Right now I am too busy to learn it but eventually I'll start adding more content than just simple additions.Mr-Encyclopedia-Man (talk) 02:44, 8 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I would not call our editing platform intuitive, but it's not terrible, just rather old fashioned. It reminds me of Scripsit, actually. Please let me know when you are ready to do more stuff in this area, especially if with the coins, where we can use help.--Wehwalt (talk) 18:54, 8 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've modified it slightly, but it's still confusing. I'm not sure I can do much better, since the Kennedy half dollar has such a confusing history. They just can't decide on what metals they want to use!-RHM22 (talk) 20:19, 9 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion for inclusion: The "real eyes" light effect.

I have discovered an interesting peculiarity in the Kennedy half dollar, which, to the best of my knowledge, is unique for a coin.

When a strong source of light (I've been using a 40w spot light) hits the coin from an angle of 45 degrees (coming from the right), the Kennedy figure suddenly "acquires" extraordinarily "real" eyes. This might be worth inclusion. I will leave the authors of the article to judge this.

http://i46.tinypic.com/hrzksx.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUYZlc6z8yg& — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.166.57.216 (talk) 23:20, 5 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it's not really in our hands. As we require reliable sources for anything in this article per WP:RS, you would have to have your discovery covered by one of those sources, for example a newspaper, before we could list it.--Wehwalt (talk) 23:32, 5 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

--- Hmmm... I can understand the requirement for "reliable sources" but this is not something that would be over the news, or some newsite, scientific journal etc - especially for a coin which is several decades old. It's just something "cool" that can be replicated by anyone with a coin, a camera and a light shining from the right side at an angle... (Video showing the proper light setup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwWWYn0Mgnc& )

...Anyway, as I said, I understand the guidelines, your position and the peculiarity of the case also. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.166.57.216 (talk) 23:23, 6 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

We are supposed to report only what has been reported elsewhere. Your experiment is interesting but really it would have to be reported someplace else for us to use it.--Wehwalt (talk) 00:33, 7 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The other concern here is that wikipedia is quite strict about not including original research. We not only need reliable sources, but we really do have our hands tied if none exist. Montanabw^(talk) 22:45, 7 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Engraver's initials missing

Red circle shows location of missing mark.

Was reading this which mentions the engraver's initials on Kennedy's neck. I was surprised to see this mark missing on our image of the coin as used in the infobox. Another image we have, and another I found online clearly show the mark. Also (and more importantly) the claimed source of the coin image is the U.S. mint which offers two images... both show the mark. I'm thinking the image we're showing in the infobox is not the best representative of that coin. Thoughts? – JBarta (talk) 06:45, 11 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps we should replace with the current images the US mint is offering.--Wehwalt (talk) 11:15, 11 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This me of the urban myth connected with the engraver's initials I recall from my childhood (close to the coin's original issue). A rumor spread because some (idiots) thought the initials "GR" looked like the Soviet hammer and sickle emblem on the coin. Since the source you found documents this, why don't we add it to the article? JustinTime55 (talk) 13:34, 16 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The thing is, it was the third coin issue in 20 years to have such a rumor (the Franklin and the Roosevelt dime, designed by John Sinnock, and with initials JS, were said to be a tribute to Joseph Stalin. I wonder how widespread such views on the Kennedy were, in light of the massive publicity that surrounded it ... I'm OK with it either way, though.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:50, 16 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Existence of the initial minting

There seems to be a logical disconnect between "vanished from circulation" in the first sentence of paragraph 2, to "seldom seen in circulation" in the second sentence.

Additionally, the "seldom seen in circulation" doesn't hold much water for those of my generation; it was common in my experience for my friends and me to receive silver Kennedys for birthdays, holidays, chores, mowing the neighbors' lawn - and we always spent them. Again, hearsay, but you might want to find a reference for that...

Otherwise, pretty interesting! Just gets off to a rough start in terms of what I can relate to. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cronkurleigh (talk • contribs) 04:31, 27 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Was this in 1964?--Wehwalt (talk) 06:37, 27 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Granted, it's only personal experience, but based on that it's a little hard to buy into the statement that they "vanished from circulation" without some verifiable citation. Cronkurleigh (talk) 16:53, 27 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sure. What you are going by is the lede of the article, WP:LEDE. It isn't cited because the facts in there are contained (and cited) in the body of the article. It's a summary, and since the facts in the body are sourced, it's allowed not to be sourced. That doesn't mean it's not backed up.--Wehwalt (talk) 17:44, 27 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Worth mentioning?

Not sure if this is worth mentioning or not, but the same profile image of Kennedy that appears on the half dollar also appears on the JFK memorial in Portland, Oregon. ---Another Believer _(Talk) 05:08, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It looks to be a fairly local sort of thing. If it was part of the Kennedy gravesite at Arlington, say, that would have far more significance. And it isn't even by Gilroy Roberts, just copied from the half.--Wehwalt (talk) 09:11, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I don't feel strongly either way, I just wanted to let article contributors decide if it was worth mentioning how the profile image has been used elsewhere. ----Another Believer _(Talk) 21:37, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I won't edit war either way, either. RHM22, do you have an opinion?--Wehwalt (talk) 22:38, 9 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Wehwalt here. If the monument had been designed before the half dollar, then I'd certainly think it would be worth including. As it is, it seems to have just been copied from the half dollar.-RHM22 (talk) 16:33, 12 August 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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Huh?

I see that the infobox refers to the composition of "some 1776–1976 San Francisco-minted coins" - a detail which has been in the article for at least four years. How many Kennedy dollars were actually minted in the 18th and 19th centuries? :) Grutness...wha? 09:34, 30 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]