TREASURY DEPARTMENT

UNITED STATES MINT SERVICE

PHILADELPHIA 30, PA

April 30, 1964

Miss Eva B. Adams

Director of the Mint

Washington, D.C. 20220

Dear Miss Adams:

In response to your telephone request of April 27, 1964,

enclosed are Mr. Roberts' and Mr. Gasparro's recollections

on the production of the President Kennedy half dollar. It is

understood that this is to be directed to the attention of

Miss Hayden.

Very truly yours,

Acting Superintendent

Enclosure

[REMINISCENCES ON THE CREATION OF THE KENNEDY HALF DOLLAR]{.underline}

Shortly after the tragedy of President Kennedy's death, November 22,
1963, Miss Eva Adams, the Director of the Mint, telephoned me here at
the Philadelphia Mint and explained that serious consideration was being
given to placing President Kennedy's portrait on a new design U. S.
silver coin and that the Quarter Dollar, Half Dollar or the One Dollar
were under discussion. For the design, they were weighing the merits of
either a front view or a profile for the obverse and the possibility of
using the President's Seal of Office for the reverse. From the
standpoint of good composition and elegance of design the profile is
much superior to any other view for the presentation of a portrait in
bas-relief on a circular medal or coin. This is almost a universally
held opinion among designers and artists and it was strongly recommended
here that a profile be used.

A day or so later, about November 27th, Miss Adams called again and
informed me that the Half dollar had been chosen for the new design;
that Mrs. Kennedy did not want to replace Washington's portrait on the
Quarter Dollar. Also it had been decided to use the profile portrait
that appears on our Mint list medal for President Kennedy and the
President's Seal that had been used on the reverse of this and other
Mint medals.

Since the Franklin Half Dollar had not been issued for the statutory
twenty-five year period, new legislative authority would be required.
However, we were to begin immediately because they wanted to start
striking the new Half Dollar in January, 1964, only about four weeks
away. This seemed almost an impossibility, but the fact that we had, on
hand, large models for both sides made the problem less insurmountable.
There was still a great amount of work to be done, all stops were out.
Mr. Gasparro tackled the reverse and the obverse became my problem.

Starting back with the original plastilene model of President Kennedy's
portrait, which he had approved, the coat was deleted, the periphery was
changed to bring the head nearer center and to decrease the size of the
circle in relation to the portrait. The background was reshaped to
provide the required depressed field necessary for proper coinage, the
inscription and date required by law were established.

On December 10th, White House press releases were issued by President
Johnson stating the reasons and the steps required to establish the new
coin.

Work on the processing to the die stage continued. An intermediate
reduction was made, approximately five inches in diameter, drastically
reducing the relief and from this intermediate, preliminary trial dies
with further reduction in relief were made. On December 13th, trial
strikes were produced and these were immediately delivered to Miss Adams
in Washington.

The following week, December 15th, Miss Adams requested my presence in
Washington to discuss the new Half Dollar with her and with other
Treasury Department officials.

Both sides of the trial strikes received very favorable comment;
however, Secretary of the Treasury Dillon wished to have Mrs. Kennedy's
opinion and wanted me to accompany him at that time. On December 17th,
we met Mrs. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy
was favorably impressed with the design on both sides of the coin but
felt it would be an improvement if the part in the hair, on the
portrait, was less pronounced and more accents were added. They also had
in mind a design showing a full figure or half figure of the late
President. There was simply not enough time to create new designs and
medals, get approvals, etc. and have the new coin in production by
January, 1964. I strongly advocated the simplicity and directness of a
profile portrait as being the best possible arrangement for a handsome,
outstanding coin whose beauty would endure and there could be no doubt
as to the identity of the subject.

Mrs. Kennedy's suggestions were carried out on the intermediate size and
another trial die was made for the obverse. New trial strikes were
prepared. Secretary of the Treasury Dillon wanted to see this second
trial piece and on December 27th, I flew to West Palm Beach where the
Secretary and Mrs. Dillon inspected the strikes. They both felt that
Mrs. Kennedy's wishes had been complied with and in their opinion, the
coin was very handsome. It was decided to proceed with tooling up for
production. The Congressional Act authorizing the Kennedy Half Dollar
was approved December 30, 1963.

Time was fast running out and if we did not have working dies for Proof
Half Dollars, the coiner would be unable to start Proof coin production
which meant that up until the time dies were available some thirty or
fifty employees would be without work. Extreme pressure was exerted to
push this program through and by January 2, 1964, Kennedy Half Dollar
Proof dies were delivered and our tremendous Proof coin production could
get started. Some minor problems still had to be ironed out for regular
production but by January 30, 1964, Denver had started production of
regular Half Dollar coinage using the new design. Sometime during the
following week, the Philadelphia Mint started striking regular Half
Dollar coinage.

On February 11, 1964, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Robert
Wallace, Director of the Mint Eva Adams, Assistant Director of the Mint
Fred Tate, Superintendent of the Mint Michael Sura and other Treasury
and Mint officials held ceremonies concurrently at the Denver and
Philadelphia Mints to commemorate the striking of the new U.S. Half
Dollar bearing the late President's portrait and issued by a sorrowing
nation as a fitting and enduring memorial honoring our former President,
John F. Kennedy.

On March 5, 1964, an initial delivery of some twenty-six million of the
new Kennedy Half Dollars was made to the Federal Reserve banks for
eventual issue to the local banks and to the people of our country.

[THE KENNEDY HALF DOLLAR (REVERSE)]{.underline}

Shortly after President Kennedy's death, plans were being made to create
a lasting and significant memorial to his memory. After careful
consideration and various suggestions made throughout the nation, the
final decision was made by Congress to make a coin with the late
President's portrait on the obverse and an appropriate design on the
reverse.

The Mint received word from the Bureau that President Kennedy's portrait
on the U.S. Mint Presidential Inaugural List Medal executed by Gilroy
Roberts and the Presidential Seal from the same medal on the reverse
designed by me were to be used for the coin; of course, with the
necessary wording required for a coin. This same Presidential Seal
incorporated in this medal was personally selected by the late President
to be used for the reverse of the 1961 Inaugural medal.

Since time was limited and we at the Mint had on hand the Kennedy medal
patterns, it was possible to proceed with haste with this coin. However,
the models in plaster form had to be considerably lowered in relief and
the basins or backgrounds of these plasters had to have the correct
curvature and heights for coinage striking. The obverse and reverse
lettering and borders necessary for coinage had to be executed and
balanced for correct composition in relation to the center motifs.

While waiting for the final decision from Congress as to the
denomination approved for coinage, I made three rough patterns
incorporating the quarter, half dollar and the dollar lettering. On
November 28, 1963, we received official word at the Mint from Miss Eva
Adams, Director, to prepare our models for the Kennedy Half Dollar and
we began our work the same day, and on December 12th we completed our
trial dies. At 9:00 A.M. on December 13th we struck our first trial
(pattern) pieces. Of course, mechanical difficulties in the way of
production had to be worked out later in days to come. The same day,
December 13th, I boarded a jet plane for Washington, D.C. to deliver the
coins to Miss Adams, who in turn submitted them via Mr. Dillon,
Secretary of the Treasury, to the White House and President Johnson.

As to my experience with this reverse, I was fortunate to have my design
accepted by Mrs. John F. Kennedy, the White House and the Treasury
Bureau.

Errors on coins are keenly sought by coin enthusiasts and I had to make
a very careful check of the heraldic symbols on the Presidential Seal.
The American eagle in this seal must hold thirteen arrows in the
(viewer's) right claw; thirteen leaves with thirteen olives in the
branch in the (viewer's) left claw. The eagle's head is turned to the
(viewer's) left facing the olive branch. Thirteen small stars are
arranged behind the eagle's head. The shield in the center covers the
eagle's breast and has seven vertical stripes. Finally, fifty stars
encircle the center motif as in the official Presidential Seal.

This seal was the culmination of many experiences with the study and
execution of the American eagle in medallic work. The manner I used in
designing the composition of the reverse was pre-planned. Deliberately I
sunk the eagle into the background so the circle of fifty stars around
the eagle and the border lettering appeared to radiate from the center
motif. The "E Pluribus Unum" was greatly enlarged in comparison to the
official Presidential Seal so that it could be easily read by the naked
eye.

Before the coin was acceptable, we had to make numerous steel reductions
from model to coin size. Finally, coinage production was begun at 11:00
A.M. on February 11, 1964 amidst great excitement at the Philadelphia
Mint and the Denver Mint simultaneously.

I had the good fortune to be with Miss Eva Adams, Mr. Wallace, Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Sura, Superintendent of the Philadelphia
Mint, other dignitaries, TV cameras, newsreel photographers and
newspaper cameramen. Miss Adams gave the signal for the Philadelphia
Mint and the Denver Mint (by telephone) to proceed with the coinage
production of the Kennedy Half Dollar on a daily twenty-four hour basis.