The U.S. Mint today started selling rolls and bags of 2018 Kennedy Half-Dollars. The 50-cent coin honors John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.
These halves are struck at the Philadelphia and Denver Mints in circulating finishes with prices of $139.95 for a 200-coin bag and $32.95 for a two-roll set of 40 coins.
"The coin rolls are wrapped in United States Mint paper coin wrap marked with a ‘P’ or ‘D’ for the mint of origin and ‘$10’ for the face value," the U.S. Mint describes. "Each bag is marked with a ‘P’ and ‘D’ for the mint of origin and ‘$100’ for the face value of the contents."
The bags and sets are equally divided with ‘P’ or ‘D’ mint marked halves that denote their production origin.
New half-dollars were authorized by Congress just weeks after Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963. They have been released annually since 1964. They have not been made for circulation since 2001, however, because of declining demand. They are now produced only for numismatic purposes such as for these roll and bag products. The table below illustrates how 50c mintages have mostly fallen since that change.
2000 – 2018 Kennedy Half-Dollar Mintages
| Total Mintage | |
| 2000 | 42,070,000 |
| 2001 | 40,700,000 |
| 2002 | 5,600,000 |
| 2003 | 5,000,000 |
| 2004 | 5,800,000 |
| 2005 | 7,300,000 |
| 2006 | 4,400,000 |
| 2007 | 4,800,000 |
| 2008 | 3,400,000 |
| 2009 | 3,800,000 |
| 2010 | 3,500,000 |
| 2011 | 3,450,000 |
| 2012 | 3,500,000 |
| 2013 | 9,600,000 |
| 2014 | 4,600,000 |
| 2015 | 4,600,000 |
| 2016 | 4,200,000 |
| 2017 | 4,700,000 |
| 2018 | 5,800,000 |
The 5.8 million mintage total of 2018 Kennedy half-dollars includes 2.2 million from Denver and 3.6 million from Philadelphia. Those figures are through February, but the amount produced early in a year is usually enough to satisfy collector demand for all of it.
Recent Sales of 50c Rolls and Bags
The U.S. Mint continues to sell 2017-dated halves. The following table presents their sales figures as of March 11, 2018, plus those of other 50-cent roll and bag products since 2011.
| Latest Sales | Total Coins | |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 P&D 200-Coin Bag | 8,959 | 2,664,560 |
| 2017 P&D Two-Roll Set | 21,819 | |
| 2016 P&D 200-Coin Bag | 11,393 | 3,218,240 |
| 2016 P&D Two-Roll Set | 23,491 | |
| 2015 P&D 200-Coin Bag | 13,762 | 3,891,880 |
| 2015 P&D Two-Roll Set | 28,487 | |
| 2014 P&D 200-Coin Bag | 12,967 | 3,806,640 |
| 2014 P&D Two-Roll Set | 30,331 | |
| 2013 P&D 200-Coin Bag | 9,980 | 2,992,720 |
| 2013 P&D Two-Roll Set | 24,918 | |
| 2012 P&D 200-Coin Bag | 10,323 | 3,415,240 |
| 2012 P&D Two-Roll Set | 33,766 | |
| 2011 P&D 200-Coin Bag | 9,455 | 3,002,280 |
| 2011 P&D Two-Roll Set | 27,782 |
Ordering
Buy rolls and bags of Kennedy halves from the U.S. Mint’s website at www.usmint.gov. A link to its page of 50-cent products is right here. There are no household ordering limits.
Im just throwing it out there for the masses….
So why are we still coining these half dollars? We have had some really nice commemoratives of the Kennedy coin along with this yearly .50 piece, but with no circulation and declining interest maybe its time to end this coin.
Any opinions?
Jp – you read my mind and I could not agree more. Why is the US mint still striking these coins…another waste of hard working tax dollars or this case half dollars…pissed into the toilet. Who does the US mint account to…the people.
Mouse
Jp & Mouse, Why is the U.S. Mint still cranking out 50 cent pieces that never go into circulation? Quite simply, for profit. This year’s run is set for 5,800,000 Kennedy Half Dollars, which is $2,900,000 in face value, and that is exactly what the Federal Reserve would pay for them if it wanted to put these coins into circulation. Since that’s not about to happen anymore, the Mint uses these as a cash-earning ploy by way of selling these circulation-quality coins directly to the public for an appreciably healthy margin. Just think; each 200 coin bag, face value $100,… Read more »
200 coin bag with $40 profit – how much do you think it costs to make these, I’m guessing 10-15 cents and almost none will be used, so more like 80% + profit
The bags of JFK;s dont always sell out…..it is one f the few profit makers it seems, but I have never bought a bag or roll set, 1998 JFK/RFK yes……..but circ clad 50c why?? Maybe one day they end the 50c piece & convert the size to a $5 coin, then I will make some profits….
Chas Barber,
It’s sort of like the reverse of “if you build it they will come.” As long as people continue to show as much interest as they have in these rolls and bags of Kennedy Half Dollars then the Mint will happily keep churning them out. After all, it would take more than a purely “philosophical” reason, so to speak, for the Mint to make a decision as drastic as shutting down one of its few profitable lines.
Old Collector
Chas, Old Collector and Mouse- I thought this might STOKE a little discussion. ; ) As for profit taking, The Mint is a business… so, but Old Collector not only will they pull some $$$ out of the rolls and bags, but there has to be some profits coming from some of the other sets this coin is also packaged with. Don’t get me wrong folks, I have the 4 coin silver set, the gold coin from a few years back, and numerous silver ones, and Kennedy was a good man, (now the rest of the Kennedy clan I have… Read more »
Jp – JFK is revered here in the USA mostly & very much so in Germany due to his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in West Germany’s city of Berlin when it was a divided city with Communist East Germany on the other side. Many German households have JFK’s portrait in their houses I noticed the 3 years I lived there & collectors there purchase these coins too. Old Collector – Remember the translation problem Kennedy’s translator got him into!? He actually said in German “I am a jelly-filled doughnut”! He should have said “Ich bin Berliner” – that… Read more »
Old Collector, I believe it costs the U.S. mint less than twenty cents to make the half. Their profit is even more than what you have stated. Plus, it will take an act of Congress to stop the minting of this coin.
Chas Barber,
I’d like to think that the Kennedy Half Dollar could make a return to holding its own as circulation currency if it was produced as a much smaller coin. For this idea I refer to the current European model of coinage where coins basically just get thicker instead of bigger circumference-wise so that they are much easier to carry about and as such are almost certainly assured of seeing much wider usage.
Old Collector
Jp,
Except, this particular iteration of the Kennedy Half Dollar is a unique clad circulation-quality coin and as such is not compatible with either of the annual proof varieties nor the uncirculated set. It’s an “orphan” coin, and as long as it continues making serious money for the Mint it will be included in its lineup.
Old Collector
Seth Riesling,
‘Tis better to be a jelly donut than to be a sauerkraut (Sauer Kraut?), I suppose. Really though, when all was said and done, I think that the memory of the game effort he put into saying those words and the powerful meaning of this unusually stirring speech in general was what the West Germans carried away with themselves that day, and that alone goes a long way toward explaining why JFK is still revered in Deutschland so many decades later.
Old Collector
erv,
You are so right. This means that the two rolls of the Kennedy Half Dollar that are retailed to the public for $32.95 actually cost the mint only $8.00 to make, which brings the profit to $24.95 per sale, which in turn translates into a profit margin just a tad under 313%. Not too shabby at that.
Old Collector
Old Collector –
Kennedy is right up there (nearly) with the Pope in the majority Catholic state of Bavaria, Germany where I lived. I saw in some German homes both portraits next to each other on walls & coffee tables of homes I visited there 1976-79.
I have a craving for fried German potato pancakes with applesauce on top.Yummy!
-NumisdudeTX
Seth Riesling, Since you lived in Bavaria, I hereby bestow upon you the (admittedly strictly unofficial, but who’s counting) title of Honorary Austrian Fellow Citizen! As you likely already know from your stay over there, Bavaria is far more like Austria than it is even close to being similar to any of the remaining German states. The Bavarian dialect, the religion, the food (including the above-mentioned potato pancakes with applesauce), the (traditional) clothing, even the scenery, is far more Austrian than it is German. The thing is that until some geo-political shenanigans involving Napoleon and the French and some crucial… Read more »
My opinion is that for the love of collecting and just the pure beauty of the coin itself is the reason to keep making them. I just gave an uncirculated 2010 to my 15 year old son, and his eyes told me the worth of them.
If we keep our youth interested, the new generation of collecting will grow.
Kevin – Well said. I to am teaching my son the art of numismatics, our younger generation have the ability to determine what coins will be of value for the next generation as it is their generation…and to see their eyes light up is worth more than the value of any coin.
Mouse
Kennedy didn’t actually say he was a jelly doughnut. You can read it here.
https://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/i-am-a-jelly-doughnut-or-am-i
Herr Larry Schmitt –
I lived in Germany for 3 years & took German classes from a native German speaker teacher at Munich American High School & traveled to Berlin. German is my second language. I dare you to go into a pastry shop in Berlin and say “Ich bin ein Berliner.” I did it for fun & the employees behind the counter & customers behind me laughed as hard as I did. I guess my University of Texas Linguistics Professor with a Ph.D. after her name was wrong too. LOL
-NumisdudeTX
Kevin & Mouse,
You get an aye aye, matey, from me. That Kennedy Half Dollar is a beeyootiful coin! 🙂
Larry Schmitt & Seth Riesling, O.k., since there seems to be some level of disagreement here as to whether or not President Kennedy did in fact (inadvertently, of course) claim to be a “jelly doughnut”, I thought now was the time for yours truly, myself being Viennese-born and raised with German as my first language and having lived eighteen years in Austria and Germany, to rise up as a neutral arbitrator, in essence just to step in and clear this matter up to the best of my ability. Here’s the thing…you’re both right, in a way. A Germanic jelly doughnut… Read more »
Old Collector – I defer to your vastly greater knowledge of the German language of course. But a “Berliner Pfannkuchen” or “Berliner” for short/slang would have been known by almost every German who heard what Kennedy said that day in Berlin & across all of Germany in that most historic & great speech as a jelly-filled doughnut. It is a quirk of the language. By the way, in the very tiny Bavarian village of Mietraching outside the gate of our National Security Agency Post (Bad Aibling Kaserne), the tiny convenience store sold a dark chocolate-covered marshmallow with wafer on bottom… Read more »
Seth Riesling, After all is said and done – and I’m pretty sure at least in this regard by now it probably has been – I think you are, in the final analysis, absolutely correct in your determination. In point of fact, It wasn’t until you brought up the specific thoughts in the second sentence of your comment above that it occurred to me what my own personal blind spot was in regard to this particular question. To wit, since I’m Austrian (and specifically Viennese to boot) I would not in a million years, and most especially so back then,… Read more »
I just need to ask this so…frend says he had a half dollar and that it was broken in three pieces I said bull_____ then he pulled it out his pocket in awesome condition. When I put them together….I can’t even see the cuts#??? What???? Anyone saw that too?? Is he for real?
Oh yeah. Absolutely Kerry.
You should also see these nifty “Rose Gold” pennies I have.
😉
I collect Kennedy’s in ten years they will be gone?.