• It is said that every American who was alive in 1963 remembers exactly what he or she was doing at the moment they heard the news of President Kennedy being shot. United States half dollar bearing Kennedy's familiar likeness will almost certainly survive the longest as a memorial, since coins, being nearly indestructible, have a long track record as the most durable witnesses to history. • The first Kennedy half dollars made for distribution were proofs coined early in 1964. From its very inception, the Kennedy half dollar became a keepsake, one cherished not only by Americans but by the late President's many foreign admirers, as well. • When Congress opted to eliminate silver from the dime and quarter beginning in 1965, it reached a compromise with the half dollar: Its silver content, while greatly reduced overall, was placed almost entirely at the coin's surface by bonding three strips of metal, the innermost one being primarily copper. These "silver-clad" pieces were coined from 1965 through 1970. Despite these various steps, Kennedy half dollars still failed to circulate to any great extent, and the question of eliminating its silver content altogether was eventually raised. After protracted debate during 1969-70, a bill was finally passed near the end of 1970 which called for the coining of half dollars in the same composition used since 1965 for the dime and quarter: two outer layers of copper and nickel bonded to an inner core of pure copper. From 1971 onward, the Kennedy half dollar would bear the red edge which had already become familiar to Americans who mourned the passing of silver from the nation's coinage. Alas, even this concession was not enough to make half dollars reappear in circulation, and today they are known This set contains: 1964 90% Silver Half Dollar and the 1965 40% Silver Half Dollar |