Comparing Survival Rates of 90% & 40% Halves
Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 2:51 amI just posted something asking for information about the survival rates of 1958 (wheat) vs. 1959 (Lincoln Memorial) pennies under a different thread.
It occurred to me that I have information already worked up for half dollars, so why not share that with the community. Here you go...
Total number of 1964 Kennedy halves minted (P & D combined): 429,509,450
Total number of 1965-69 Kennedy halves (both mints): 846,745,006
I looked for both of these and started in 2004. Although I still look for silver halves, things tapered off very significantly (both my effort and the percentage of silvers found) beginning in 2011.
Since 2004 I have found 336 of the 90% Kennedy halves in addition to 2,275 of the 40%ers.
Now take the mintages and divide by what I found. You will get one out of every 1,278,302 of the 90%ers ever minted that was found by yours truly. You will also get one out of every 372,196 of the 40%ers ever minted. So if my results are statistically significant that means that 90%ers have been taken out of circulation roughly 3.43 times as aggressively as 40%ers (1,278,302 divided by 372,196). I don't know what I was expecting before I made the calculations, but there you go.
Note that I have segregated silver that I found in bank rolls from silver that I have bought at coin shops and elsewhere (shows, eBay, this site, etc.). The stats herein are only for silver coins found, not bought.
The total amount of halves gone through was $77,254.50 face value (over 154,000 coins). If you include the 126 pre-64's that I found (Franklins and Walkers), then 1.8% of the halves I looked through over all those years was silver. That is, roughly 1 out of every 56 coins was silver. Since 2011, it is one out of every 217 halves that is silver. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
Here is a wild stat about finding halves. The last pre-1964 I found was on 10/26/10. I've found silver since then, but not a single Franklin or Walker in all $11,047.50 face that I've searched since 10/27/10.
Does anyone else have data like this to add? The more data we have, the better the survey results.
It occurred to me that I have information already worked up for half dollars, so why not share that with the community. Here you go...
Total number of 1964 Kennedy halves minted (P & D combined): 429,509,450
Total number of 1965-69 Kennedy halves (both mints): 846,745,006
I looked for both of these and started in 2004. Although I still look for silver halves, things tapered off very significantly (both my effort and the percentage of silvers found) beginning in 2011.
Since 2004 I have found 336 of the 90% Kennedy halves in addition to 2,275 of the 40%ers.
Now take the mintages and divide by what I found. You will get one out of every 1,278,302 of the 90%ers ever minted that was found by yours truly. You will also get one out of every 372,196 of the 40%ers ever minted. So if my results are statistically significant that means that 90%ers have been taken out of circulation roughly 3.43 times as aggressively as 40%ers (1,278,302 divided by 372,196). I don't know what I was expecting before I made the calculations, but there you go.
Note that I have segregated silver that I found in bank rolls from silver that I have bought at coin shops and elsewhere (shows, eBay, this site, etc.). The stats herein are only for silver coins found, not bought.
The total amount of halves gone through was $77,254.50 face value (over 154,000 coins). If you include the 126 pre-64's that I found (Franklins and Walkers), then 1.8% of the halves I looked through over all those years was silver. That is, roughly 1 out of every 56 coins was silver. Since 2011, it is one out of every 217 halves that is silver. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
Here is a wild stat about finding halves. The last pre-1964 I found was on 10/26/10. I've found silver since then, but not a single Franklin or Walker in all $11,047.50 face that I've searched since 10/27/10.
Does anyone else have data like this to add? The more data we have, the better the survey results.
