Soon after the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy, a coin was commissioned in his honor, replacing the Franklin Half Dollar. Due to the tight deadlines, two people worked together on the design of Kennedy Half Dollar. Gilroy Roberts did a left-facing profile view of Kennedy for the obverse. Frank Gasparro, who was his assistant, did a design for the reverse that was based on the Presidential seal. After some minor changes, the design of Kennedy Half Dollar was approved. However, the way was not yet clear. The laws governing the minting of coins said that a coin’s design could only be changed after 25 years, unless Congress approved the change. The Kennedy Half Dollar Coin’s predecessor, bearing Benjamin Franklin’s portrait, had only been used for fifteen years. Therefore, special legislation was passed in order to shelve the Franklin coin and replace it with the Kennedy Half Dollar. Kennedy Half Dollar Coin proved to be immensely popular—perhaps too popular. Many of the coins in the initial batches never entered “normal” commerce, and were kept as mementos instead.
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