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This half dollar honoring the memory of slain President John F. Kennedy was the most eagerly awaited coin ever produced by the United States Mint. The first pieces were issued March 24, 1964, at the very height of the frenzied coin market of the early 1960s. Very few of these coins actually had the chance to become worn, as collectors and speculators around the world hoarded all they could get. The timing for a new and popular coin could not have been worse, as the United States was about to abandon its .900 fine silver coinage for issues having little or no silver at all. In an effort to keep the 1964 silver coins from being hoarded, Congress authorized that date to be frozen until further notice. The Philadelphia Mint thus coined 87,448,004 examples of the 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar during that year, another 144,182,000 the following year and a final 41,674,000 during 1966. It was all in vain, as few of these coins remained in circulation for more than a month or two. Though millions of pieces survive in Mint State, most are quite heavily marked from years of being traded in bag quantities. Gems are readily available in grades as high as MS-66, though many of these required attractive toning to push them past the MS-64 level. Prooflike (PL) are known but are quite rare. It's likely that these were coined from retired proof dies that still retained their polished fields. A few doubled-die obverse (DDO) and doubled-die reverse (DDR) varieties are known, and NGC will certify the better of these through its VarietyPlus service.
