Halves are by far the most popular coin to roll hunt for one simple reason: Silver.
There is a lot of silver floating around in circulating halves. Not as much as there was just a few years ago, but still quite a bit. There are a couple of reasons why there is so much silver still to be found in circulating halves.
One reason is because halves are the least used denomination of all circulating coinage and as such don’t exchange hands as often. Since the coins don’t change hands as often as the other denominations there is that many fewer times the coin has run the chance of being pulled from circulation for it’s metal value.
The other reason silver can be found in halves more often than the other denominations is due to the fact that silver was used in halves until 1970. That’s six years after the other denominations had their composition changed to remove all silver.
The combination of these two factors means you can still find quite a bit of silver circulating in Half Dollars This is why Half Dollars are searched by Composition Hunters more than any other denomination.
If you’d like to read a little bit of history on the Kennedy Half Dollar I would suggest reading the Coin Resource article (new window).
Composition Hunters - Half Dollars are the primary denomination searched by composition hunters because there is still quite a bit of silver floating around in circulation. When it comes to getting your hands on some of this silver possibly the best way is to ask the tellers at your local bank if they have any hand rolled halves or loose halves in their trays. On a percentage basis you’re more likely to find silver this way than in boxes however tellers usually don’t have that many hand rolled coins available. Your other option is to ask your bank if they have any boxes of halves. More than likely they won’t and they’ll have to order you a box.
You might get very lucky on an ordered box, or you might get skunked (no silver). Recently the chances of being skunked has increased quite significantly but it’s still not unheard of to run across a box with 20% of the halves containing silver.
Variety Hunters - I would highly recommend looking at the Home of the Kennedy’s website (new window) for information on Kennedy varieties
Set Hunters – The Kennedy set is a Hard set to put together from roll hunting. I know of only one person who has done it and it required her searching through over 900 boxes in order to complete. The main reason for this is that there are several years where Kennedy Halves were not released to the public for circulation. They had to be ordered directly from the mint.
That said if you’re interested in putting a Kennedy set together I would recommend purchasing the 3 H.E. Harris & Co. folders for Halves; Kennedy Half Dollar #1 Folder 1964-1984, Kennedy Half Dollar #2 Folder 1985-1999, and Kennedy Half Dollar #3 Folder Starting 2000.
2012 edit: When this article was originally written silver prices were around $8 an ounce. Silver experience a huge price swing starting roughly in 2010. With the advent of CRHing and the huge upswing in silver prices, CRHing Halves isn't nearly as profitable as it once was. It's not uncommon now to experience skunk streaks of $5000 searched (or more)!
