Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Kennedy half dollar

Kennedy half dollar
This nomination predates the introduction in April 2014 of article-specific subpages for nominations and has been created from the edit history of Today's featured article/requests. 
 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/March 24, 2014 by BencherliteTalk 18:36, 10 March 2014‎ (UTC)



The Kennedy half dollar is a fifty cent coin currently issued by the United States Mint. Intended as a memorial to the assassinated President John F. Kennedy, it was authorized by Congress just over a month after his death. Use of existing works by Mint sculptors Gilroy Roberts and Frank Gasparro allowed dies to be prepared quickly, and striking of the new coins began in January 1964. The coins vanished from circulation upon their release in March 1964 due to collectors, hoarders, and those interested in a memento of the late president. Although the Mint greatly increased production, the denomination still failed to circulate. Starting with 1965-dated pieces, the percentage of fine silver was reduced from 90% to 40% (silver clad), but even this change failed to restore the coin to circulation. In 1971, silver was eliminated entirely from the coins. A special design for the reverse of the half dollar was issued for the United States Bicentennial and was struck in 1975 and 1976. Even though ample supplies of half dollars are now available, their circulation is extremely limited. Since 2002, Kennedy half dollars have only been struck to satisfy the demand from collectors, and are available at a premium through the Mint. Four points and probably more. 50th anniversary of release.Wehwalt (talk) 02:06, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Support - Nice coin, nice article. — Crisco 1492 (talk) 02:28, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Support I calculate at least 6: 4 for being a 50th anniversary, +2 for the fact that it was promoted to FA in 2011, >2 years ago. Most recent coin article is January 25th - Elgin, Illinois, Centennial half dollar, so within 3 months of the requested date. 0x0077BE (talk) 03:06, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Support - happy to see the coin articles on the MP. A fine article. – Connormah (talk) 20:20, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Support excellent value pictured. (Too bad he's looking to the left.) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 22:45, 10 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Support, agree with, above. Cheers, &mdash; Cirt (talk) 04:55, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Support good article, notable topic. &mdash; Fr&epsilon;ckl&epsilon;fσσt