Rolls of 2011 Kennedy Half Dollar coins went off sale Tuesday, May 15, 2012 when, on the same day, the United States Mint released bags and rolls containing this year’s Kennedy Half Dollar.
This is not unusual, although the United States Mint has and currently does offer older products even when newer releases come out — the May 7th release of the 2012 Proof Set is one example, with the 2011-dated set still on sale.
Like this year and in recent years, the U.S. Mint has been offering the Kennedy Half Dollar in 200-coin bags and 40-coin two roll sets. As the half dollar has not been released into American circulation since 2002 and is produced solely for collector sales, it is these U.S. Mint products that account for the sales and resultant mintages of the coins.
In most cases, the U.S. Mint generally produces enough Kennedy Half Dollars coins at the beginning of the year — usually in January — to account for expected collector sales for an entire year. As such, annual mintages are known early. In rare cases, with 2009 being the most recent, collector demand increased more than expected and the U.S. Mint had to go back and produce more.
For last year’s 50-cent piece, the U.S. Mint reported sales of just over 3 million as of May 14, 2012.
2011 Kennedy Half Dollar Coin Sales
| Old Sales |
Latest Sales |
Gain/ Loss |
Coin Total | Combined Sales | |
| 2011 200-coin bag (P&D) | 9,455 | 9,455 | 0 | 1,891,000 | 3,001,520 |
| 2011 2-roll set (P&D) | 27,436 | 27,763 | 327 | 1,110,520 |
Earlier last year the U.S. Mint had also indicated mintages of the coin totaled 3,450,000. As sales were 448,480 lower than published mintages, there is obviously some excess inventory. This occurs across the years. What happens to the excess inventory is not known. Older dated bags and rolls are either left in storage, or the coins get destroyed.
In any case, it is useful to know that U.S. Mint published mintages are not correlated exactly to sales data.
For reference, the following table offers U.S. Mint provided mintages for the Kennedy Half Dollar between years 2002 and 2012.
2002-2012 Kennedy Half Dollar Coin Mintages
| Denver Mint | Philadelphia Mint | Total Mintages | |
| 2002 | 2,500,000 | 3,100,000 | 5,600,000 |
| 2003 | 2,500,000 | 2,500,000 | 5,000,000 |
| 2004 | 2,900,000 | 2,900,000 | 5,800,000 |
| 2005 | 3,500,000 | 3,800,000 | 7,300,000 |
| 2006 | 2,000,000 | 2,400,000 | 4,400,000 |
| 2007 | 2,400,000 | 2,400,000 | 4,800,000 |
| 2008 | 1,700,000 | 1,700,000 | 3,400,000 |
| 2009 | 1,900,000 | 1,900,000 | 3,800,000 |
| 2010 | 1,700,000 | 1,800,000 | 3,500,000 |
| 2011 | 1,700,000 | 1,750,000 | 3,450,000 |
| 2012 | 1,700,000 | 1,800,000 | 3,500,000 |
