The Kennedy Half Dollar was first struck in 1964 as a tribute to the fallen President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated on November 22, 1963, during a motorcade procession in Dallas. A mourning nation wrapped its collective hug around the silver 1964 Kennedy Half Dollars, coins that served as silver 50-cent tributes to a dashing president whose thousand days in the White House with his young, photogenic family was endearingly dubbed “Camelot.”
Even after the Kennedy Half Dollar saw its composition debased from 90% silver to 40% silver in 1965, and then eventually copper-nickel clad in 1971, the coin was regarded as something worthy of keeping – something colloquially “special.” In short order, a denomination that had once been commonplace, a single coin deftly capable of replacing two quarters or five dimes, had fallen away from circulation. By the late 1970s, the Kennedy Half Dollar had all but vanished from daily commerce. And this is where the story of the 1978 Kennedy Half Dollar comes into focus.
The cumulative mintage of the 1978 Kennedy Half Dollar was 31,243,580, a paltry sum as compared to the coin’s early 1970s outputs that regularly exceeded 100 million per mint. The 1978 production roster shows just 14,350,000 halves were struck at the Philadelphia Mint and a mere 13,765,799 were made in Denver, with 3,127,781 proofs hailing from San Francisco. The mintages didn’t influence demand for the coin – existing demand dictated production; as the falling mintages for the coin revealed, by 1978 commerce needs for new half dollars were sliding to lows not seen in many years.
Ultimately, the 1978 Kennedy Half Dollar made its way into circulation but was scarcely seen in regular channels of commerce. Relatively few of these coins popped up at diners, doughnut shops, or pharmacies. The 1978 Kennedy Halves were probably more likely to be seen in use on the Nevada casino circuit as ad hoc gaming chips or serving as sleight-of-hand props for illusionists and magicians.
Today, 1978 Kennedy Half Dollars remain relatively common, with the occasional worn specimen popping up in rolls or making a rare appearance in pocket change. Examples in the more pedestrian Mint State grades of MS60 to MS64 are common enough, though the coin does become tougher in MS65 and up. Specimens grading MS67 or higher are absolutely rare. Proofs, meanwhile, are widely available for nominal prices.