mint error 1977-D KENNEDY HALF DOLLAR

[Dean Perez]

Would it be worth it to grade 1977-D Kennedy half dollars. I inherited a coin collection and trying to get educated on coins that are mint errors. According to 2016 The official Red book. 1977-D was minted in clad by error. I have 7. 

These 1977-D look like they had been in circulation, but have also been bagged and put away for 30-40 years. What should I do? Attached photo. 

[Mohawk]

Hi Dean,

Welcome to the forums.  Sadly, I have some not so great news for you.  The error 1977-D Kennedy Half Dollars that the Redbook refers to are Silver Clad or 40% Silver, the same composition that was originally used for half dollars from 1965-1970.  In 1976, the San Francisco Mint produced special Silver Clad/40% Silver Bicentennial Sets for sale to collectors.  These sets contained silver clad examples of the Bicentennial quarter, half dollar and dollar.  Typically, at this time, the San Francisco Mint produced Proof Sets in the standard metals for sale to collectors along with Lincoln Cents for circulation, though these have no mintmarks after 1975 to distinguish them as SF products.  I read years ago (sadly I cannot remember the exact source) that it was standard procedure at this time for the San Francisco Mint to send planchets (coinage blanks) that they deemed unsuitable for Proof coinage to the Denver Mint for use in circulation coinage.  Now, the San Francisco Mint was only supposed to send planchets of the standard composition (copper-nickel clad in the case of dimes, quarters, halves, dollars) to Denver for this purpose.  However, at some point, some of the silver clad planchets from the special Bicentennial sets were sent to Denver in error.  These weren't caught by Denver Mint employees either and the Silver Clad 1977-D Kennedy Half was born.  There are similar errors for 1974-D, 1976_D and 1977-D Eisenhower Dollars and for 1971-D Kennedy Half Dollars.  Now, all of these errors are very rare.  From your photos, you just have regular copper-nickel clad Kennedy Halves in circulated condition.  They are only worth face value.  I would definitely not grade them.   If they have a special meaning to you or you just like them, by all means hold onto them, but if they don't, just spend them.

I hope this helps even if the news isn't great. 

~Tom