A silly question about Kennedy halves.

[Leothelion]

Hi everyone

Recently. I went through 50 2003 mint sets and most of the halves, if not all 100, have suffered numerous marks to the reverse shields. In my opinion, this problem should keep most halves at the MS64 grade level. So here's my unquivical question. Are there Kennedy halves with marked up shields residing in certified slabs of MS66 and higher? I'm sure there are but how common is it. There's a MS68 on ebay where the shield appears to be marked up. I have asked the question to the seller and await his answer. And checking through several auctions, no-one mentions the shield, whether it's marked up or not. This can't be happening. If I were to assemble a Kennedy half set, I would want clean, markfree shields. Do such coins with clean shields command a higher price?

 

Leo

[gmarguli]

I've had quite a few grade MS67 with scuffed shields. It's such as easy area to get scuffed that the services give a lot of leeway on these.

[keithdagen]

Leo,

 

On the reverse, the two areas which the services really focus are the shield and the tail feathers. On the older Kennedys, the tail feathers can be especially weak, and a strong strike can make the difference between a 66 and a 67 on the silver if the rest is clean.

 

Both of the 66's I have on E-Bay have very clean shields and feathers overall, with marks minimal and the marks that are there not being distractive. I have a 1967 MS-67 with more shield damage, but the major mark appears to be a struck fragment.

 

I would not consider a coin to be a true MS-68 with anything beyond struck fragments in the shield or feather area. And looking at the MS-68 on E-Bay, I believe that the pic is too small to really tell. Jay's a good seller, and if he says it's a good 68, it's a good 68.

[jom]

Recently. I went through 50 2003 mint sets and most of the halves, if not all 100, have suffered numerous marks to the reverse shields

 

Are you kidding! I cannot believe the mint is STILL doing this? Unbelievable. I haven't been keeping up with Kennedy half quality since I "finished" putting my raw set together in 1993 so I don't know the latest but I always thought this problem only occured up to the mid-70s or so.

 

US Mint: Quality control at it's finest...

 

jom

[GDJMSP]

I think the leeway given to the Kennedy halves ( most halves really ) when it comes to grading is similar to that given to silver dollars. The size of the coins being what it is - they tend to get marked up quite a bit when they are spit out of the presses.

[CarlWohlforth]

I don't have any 2003s here, but am looking at a 2001 and 2 2002s in 67. None of them have any marks on the shield.

[Oldtrader3]

Jom: I still buy a couple of Mint Sets a year (mostly for my quarter and half albums). The last couple of years, set quality is really low. In fact, these sets are some of the worst quality Mint Sets that I have ever seen. The 2003 set quarters that I just received look like they were run through a vibratory feeder.

[jom]

The 2003 set quarters that I just received look like they were run through a vibratory feeder.

 

When I was putting together my raw sets of Wash, Ike and Kennedys you get a good idea how crappy the mint has been (Philly especially) since about the mid-50s. The late dates of my raw sets (circa 1993) seemed to be improvements over the stuff that they put out in prior decades. Since I haven't been collecting "moderns" for about ten years I don't know how it's been lately but I have seen a few of the State quarter rolls that looked like [!@#%^&^]. Georgia comes to mind....

 

BTW, I'm talking circ strikes here, not proofs. I've never really collected proofs...

 

jom

[Leothelion]

Having the desire and determination to collect Kennedy halves with a clean, sharp shield must lie within that realm of so-called ultimate collectors that the slab companies could care less about. The same holds true for 6 step Jeffersons but yet, they'll raise a stink over full heads, full bell lines, full steps, full bands and so on if there is a mark affecting any of those areas. All the 2003 dimes I have, have full bands! Speaking of bands, there has to be a group of Kennedy collectors out there who pay close attention to an unmarked shield Kennedy halves.

And I'm not questioning the integrety of the seller of the 68 half, it's the certifier that bothers me and perhaps the manufactuer. By the way, Jay said, "It's clean!

The shield must be as high as the coin's rim, nontheless I've downgraded almost all of the reverses of the new 2003 halves I have because of the marked up shields.

For the exception of a very few, maybe 4-5 that include a split graded PL MS67/66. I don't believe anyone will understand when I try to sell these things raw.

Yeah, wish me good luck!

 

Leo

[CarlWohlforth]

I just got through looking at 3 more 67s and 3 dozen 66s of different dates. I found none to be mark free on the shield when looking with a loupe. 1 67 and about 3 or 4 of those 66s were very, very close though!