Expert: PAPAJACK - 7/22/2007

Question
I have a bicentennial Kennedy half dollar, mint mark D.  On the reverse the letters "DE" are missing from the word Independence and the "H" is missing from the word Hall.  The envelope it came in has it labeled as an imperfect strike. Does this coin have any added value?  Thanks...

Answer
Hello Denise,                             

Is there a ghost of the missing item or any scratches where it should be?
Is the rest of the coin properly struck?

Missing letters are usually caused by a filled die error.
Grease and debris commonly get caught in the recesses of the dies as they produce coins. When the dies close on the blank the portion of the die filled with this debris won’t let the metal flow into it.
These coins are common with weak or altogether missing features. The price you may get for them over the face value depends on what an error collector may pay for the particular coin.
Error collecting is a branch outside of coins collecting. There is no fixed pricing on these error coins published and each one would have to be seen to be evaluated. But since this is a very common error it would sell in the $1 to $5 range.

I hope this information is helpful.

Feel free to ask another question about US Coins.

Good Luck

PapaJack