almost 50 years ago , JFK and the 1964 PF Accented Hair Variety

Hi everyone,

I recently returned from a great vacation last week in Hilton Head, SC. The low country is quite beautiful and except for the fact that I got skunked flyfishing for tailing redfish I had a great time (actually I always have a great time fishing whether I catch or don't catch fish).

One thing I was able to do on vacation was catch up on my reading, and I devoured both of O'Reilly's "Killing Kennedy" and "Killing Lincoln" works, both great , enjoyable reads !!!

Anyway, to tie to coins, the Kennedy assassination is now 50 years this November ( time flies) and even though I was a nine year old at that time, I vividly remember exactly where I was and how to this day this tragedy may be the most significant historical event of my lifetime.

The Kennedy read led me to the 1964 90% silver Kennedy half dollar issue and additional coin research to the Proof

"Accented Hair" variety .

The "Accented Hair" variety is a very small portion of the total Proof mintage of 3.9M, its estimated that only 1 to 3% are of the "Accented" variety.

The variety is easily diagnosed on the obverse by the"wishbone" hair effect above the ear and the truncated "I" in Liberty serif, and on the reverse by the "broken rays" and straight "G" in Gasparro's initial. A pretty cool coin ! From my research, the story goes that Jackie Kennedy did not like the hair depiction on JFK's bust and the US mint retooled the die to make her happy, (she was Jackie Kennedy for goodness sake) !

In checking out NGC pops and pricing about 1.5% of the total estimated "Accented" coins have been submitted to NGC, or around 3,000 pieces as compared to approx 16,000 PF of the standard coin or only 0.4% submissions. This is of interest and fully explained by the fact that the Accented variety is approx $80 in PF66 compared to $25 in PF 66 without the variety .

My opinion is that the "Accented" variety may have some potential next year on its 50th anniversary, especially in grades over PF 66 and in PFCA and PFUC grades. I will add a few of these to my collection as practical ( see pic of my 1st purchase), a great reminder of that infamous day in history.

Thanks for reading,

Rich

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