Half-dollar rolls are easy to overlook because the coins look familiar. The first job is to separate silver-bearing dates from modern clad, then decide whether collector premium—not just metal—applies.
Key facts
- Franklin half dollars are 90% silver; confirm the coin’s type and date before applying melt math.
- Walking Liberty half dollars are 90% silver. Many examples trade above melt, depending on date, condition, and demand.
- Kennedy halves are 90% silver in 1964 and 40% silver from 1965–1970. This is a common “is it silver?” confusion point.
- A silver coin usually shows a solid silvery-gray edge; clad coinage usually shows a copper-brown sandwich stripe. The inherited-collection field guide covers this screen in chapter 2.
- The 0.715 melt shortcut appears in the inherited-collection book chapter 3 and Video 02. It does not apply to 40% Kennedy halves.
Buy discipline
The Weekend Coin Dealer chapter 3 and the fee-math field guide work backward from realistic resale, costs, and required profit. No specific buy price is stated here because spot, condition, demand, and selling costs move.