Interesting History of The Kennedy Half Dollar

Every country has its currency and there are always some interesting facts behind its design, the purpose of issue, color, the material used in the production, etc. The currency circulation maintains the economy of the country. Today we will be discussing one such very popular currency and some interesting facts related to it. The Kennedy half dollar was issued in January 1964 by the United States mint. It came into existence just after a month of the assassination of John F. Kennedy the 35th President of the United States. This coin was designed to commemorate the late President. With time, the production of Kennedy half a dollar increased but the officials did not see these coins in circulation like any currency note or coin does.
People were holding this dollar and rather than using it for purchase they were retaining the coins as it was made of silver. Gradually most U.S. citizens built a mind-set to preserve these coins as it would give them huge money at the time of liquidation in the future. Because of this behavior of the people of the United States, the half dollar was not as much circulating in the economy as it could have. This is something that does not happen in most countries but the importance of the half dollar coin and the history associated with it drove people to take such a step.
In 1965 the officials decided to degrade the quality of silver with a thought that people would start circulating the half dollar but this strategy was a huge failure because then also people didn't change and it did not influence them to use this dollar and circulate it in the economy.
Acceptance of the Kennedy Half Dollar
Kennedy was the most popular President of the United States of America and the citizens loved him and supported him. When he died all the citizens were left astonished and they wanted to have something in his memory. Seeing this the officials decided to design a dollar in the name of Kennedy which is popularly known as "Kennedy Half Dollar".
Witnessing the craze the treasury officials firstly decided to issue 91 million half dollar but they ended up issuing 141 million. This counting didn't stop here, even after one year of the assassination of the President, people didn't stop owning half dollars and the total number reached up to a whopping 160 million.
Value of the Kennedy Half Dollar
In the early years, the making of this half dollars included fine quality of silver but with the time the officials degraded the quality of silver, the obvious reason was to drive people to stop holding it and circulate it in the economy.
Back in 1964, 90% of silver and only 10% of copper was used for making half a dollar but in late 1965 the proportion of silver was reduced to 40%.
The history of Kennedy half dollar is very vague and even very interesting. In order to get detailed information related to the Kennedy half dollar, you can follow this link. There are so many interesting things written about Kennedy Half Dollar by historians, White House officials, writers, and even common people. So if you think you know everything about the Kennedy half dollar then start reading about it.