Tomorrow, June 20, 2013 at 12:00 Noon ET, the United States Mint will begin sales of circulating quality 2013 Kennedy Half Dollars in bag and roll quantities. The half dollar denomination was last produced for distribution to circulation in 2001. For each subsequent year, the coins have only been minted in limited quantities and distributed to collectors within numismatic products.
The available products options for the 2013 Kennedy Half Dollar will include a two roll set and a 200-coin bag. The two roll set includes one 20-coin roll from the Philadelphia Mint and one 20-coin roll from the Denver Mint, available at a price of $32.95 per set. The 200-coin bag contains 100 coins each from the Philadelphia and Denver Mints and is priced at $139.95 per bag. These prices are unchanged from the levels of the previous year.
The wrappers and canvas bags carry indications of the “P” and/or “D” mint mark along with the face value of the contents.
The US Mint has stated that these products will remain available for one year from the initial on-sale date or until inventory is depleted prior to the one year time frame.
Recent circulating coin production figures show that the Philadelphia and Denver Mint have struck 1.8 million circulating quality half dollars each for the year to date. This is amount is roughly in line with the mintages seen over the past five years of the series. Demand for circulating quality half dollars within numismatic products seems to have found a consistent base level of demand.
The Kennedy Half Dollar may see increased attention and demand next year, when the design reaches its 50th anniversary. The US Mint has conducted a survey to evaluate special sets which may potentially be issued in 2014. Such surveys have been the precursor to special sets or coins issued for the American Silver Eagle and American Gold Buffalo series.
The survey mentioned a wide range of potential 2014 Kennedy Half Dollar 50th Anniversary Sets under consideration. One possibility is a four coin set including reverse proof 90% silver half dollars with the “P”, “D”, “S”, and “W” mint marks. Another interesting possibility called for a three coin set including proof, reverse proof, and uncirculated 90% silver half dollars with different mint marks. Other possibilities called for two, three, or four coin sets with various combinations of clad and silver half dollars with varying finishes and mint marks.
Other News
The United States Mint has provided a release date of August 8, 2013 for the 2013-W Reverse Proof Gold Buffalo. This coin will be issued to celebrate the 100th anniversary of James Earle Fraser’s American Buffalo design.
The Mint has previously indicated that the reverse proof coin will be minted to demand. As with other numismatic gold products, the pricing will be determined based on the average market price of gold during the weekly period leading up to the release. Unless the Mint plans on adding another column to the pricing grid, it would seem that the price of the reverse proof coin will be the same as the standard proof, which was released on May 23.
In other developments, the US Mint has started posting weekly numismatic sales figures on their website. The information can be found in this section along with reorganized figures for other categories.
The figures provided are for cumulative sales, without an indication of the change from the prior week. I will continue to publish the regular weekly numismatic product sales report on Coin Update News, which calculates the weekly changes and provides relevant commentary and comparisons.
The latest United States Mint circulating coin production figures are now available. For the fifth month in a row, production levels show an increase compared to the year ago period.
The weekly numismatic product sales report has now been published 