how much silver in a 1968 kennedy half dollar

[CooperRose]

Ah, the 1968 Kennedy Half Dollar, a coin with a bit of a silver identity crisis. It's not quite the silver titan its 1964 predecessor was, but it's not just a plain old piece of metal, either. Think of it as "silver-lite."

During this era, the U.S. Mint was stretching its silver reserves, so your 1968 half dollar is a "silver-clad" coin. The official composition is 40% silver and 60% copper. It’s essentially a copper core with a silvery outer layer, a clever way to keep the look while cutting back on the precious stuff.

So, how much of the good stuff does that actually leave you with? Your 1968 Kennedy Half Dollar contains 0.1479 troy ounces of pure silver. It’s a specific and somewhat modest amount, but it’s definitely there, giving the coin a value beyond the fifty cents stamped on its face. It's a coin from a transitional period, caught between the heyday of 90% silver and the modern copper-nickel coins we see today.