First clad, then gold and finally silver

Are you ready for next month’s offering of a set of four 50th anniversary Kennedy half dollar coins?

Like a movie trilogy, we fans are waiting for the next installment of a popular franchise.

The Mint will put the silver set on sale Oct. 28. Sales will be handled by its spiffy new website to handle the heavy traffic. Telephones will also be up and running. What won’t be offered are over-the-counter sales.

The $99.95 issue price for the four-coin set seems reasonable given the inclusion of proof, reverse proof, enhanced uncirculated and uncirculated silver coins in it. Each finish will be produced by a different mint. That will give us four mintmarks to add to our enjoyment as collectors. The only thing that could top that is if they would open a production line at Carson City and treat us to a return of the CC – but that is a wish for another denomination and another day.

While I cannot put a price on my memories of the 1964 release of the Kennedy half dollar, I can certainly say I am ready, willing and able to pay the $99.95 for the silver set. I never did decide to cough up the $1,240 for the gold Kennedy. That was too high a fare to pay for me to go down memory lane, but I did have great fun covering the release at the Chicago American Numismatic Association convention. That has added to my stock of Kennedy half dollar experiences to write about in the future.

Have you caught your breath after the hullaballoo over the release of the 50th anniversary proof gold Kennedy half dollar?

Readers have been reporting their pleasure in the quality of the pieces they are receiving from the Mint. Obviously, they were not as reluctant to buy as I was. Presumably, these writers also simply stayed at home on that first day of availability Aug. 5 and ordered their coins via the Mint’s website.

The fact the Mint had a ready supply of 40,000 gold Kennedys, which is two-thirds of the quantity ordered so far, meant a fairly rapid shipping process to satisfy buyers.

The Mint will also have a large stockpile of silver sets in advance of the opening of the order period. The question is how many sets will collectors order?

I think it will be a very large number.

The two-half clad set has already sold 124,749. I think we can count on a .900 fine silver set to be even more popular even though its price is far higher.

I will pencil in a forecast of 300,000 silver sets. Most of them will probably be ordered in the first hours of availability as the speculators try to hit the trifecta in the early release grading label lottery.

A lot of money has been made on these labels and a lot more is still to come. Profit streaks of this kind eventually end, but to me the third Kennedy offering is just as likely to pop higher as the first two did.

These are the right coins at the right time. Are you in the right place to get them? I hope so.

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