Skip to content

40% silver · 1965–1970

1965–1970 Kennedy half dollar melt value

Between 1965 and 1970 the Kennedy half was struck in a 40% silver clad alloy — the only US circulating coin ever made that way, and a transitional step on the road to no silver at all.

Melt value, one coin

0.1479 ozt silver · 40% silver

0.1479 ozt silver11.5 g at 40%

Silver content
0.1479 ozt
Struck weight
11.5 g
Silver spot
Per $1 face

The silver price shown was recorded when this page was published. Figures calculated from it appear once the live price loads, so nothing here is worked out from a number the market may have left behind.

Value a lot

Metal content only — not a dealer offer
coins

Count only 1965–1970 kennedy half dollars from 1965–1970. Coins outside those years look similar and hold different silver, or none.

Melt value of the lot

2.958 ozt of silver

Face value of the lot

What the coins say they are worth

$10.00

Common lots

By face value, as the trade quotes it
Lot1965–1970 Kennedy half dollarsSilverMelt value
$1 faceFour quarters20.30 ozt
$5 faceA half roll of quarters101.48 ozt
$10 faceA common small lot202.96 ozt
$50 faceA half bag10014.79 ozt
$100 faceThe standard trading unit20029.58 ozt

Before you sell

A 40% half holds under half the silver of a 1964 one, and dealers price 40% material well below 90% because refining a low-grade alloy costs more per ounce recovered. Sort the two before you sell.

Melt is a ceiling on the metal, not an offer. A buyer pays a share of it, and the spread between two buyers on the same lot is routinely wider than the entire premium difference this site tracks between bullion dealers.

How this is calculated

11.5 g × 40% ÷ 31.1035 = 0.1479 troy ounces of silver, multiplied by the live silver spot price.

The silver weight is derived from how the coin was struck rather than copied from a reference table, and a test pins it to the published figure of 0.1479 ozt.

Other US silver coin series

Same calculation, different weight

All 15 silver coin series we value, including the face-value calculator for pricing a mixed lot.