FREE: 1976 bicentennial Gem John Fitzgerald Kennedy B.U Half Dollar

The listing, 1976 bicentennial Gem John Fitzgerald Kennedy B.U Half Dollar has ended.

Americans have long considered the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 as the birthday of the United States. And 1976 was a special year: the 200th anniversary, or bicentennial, of our nation's founding.
So for the country's Bicentennial in 1976, the U.S. Mint released special versions of three of our circulating coins: the Washington quarter, the Kennedy half dollar and the Eisenhower dollar. Bicentennial coinage was issued for two years (1975-76), and coins issued in both years featured the dual date of "1776-1976".


Obverse:
On all Kennedy half dollars, including the Bicentennial issue, the obverse was designed by Gilroy Roberts, Chief Engraver at the United States Mint from July 22, 1948 to February 11, 1965. Roberts' medal for President Kennedy's inauguration served as the basis of the coin's design.
The central motif is a portrait of the 35th President of the United States, the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy. A war hero and (at the time) the youngest person ever to serve as president, Kennedy was inaugurated on January 20, 1961 and assassinated on November 22, 1963. The nation's grief was such that Congress and the U.S. Mint rushed through a design change on the half dollar denomination to commemorate the bereaved president.

Atop the upper half of the rim is the inscription LIBERTY, with Kennedy's hair covering the bottom portions of the letters "B", "E" and "R". The dual date 1776 * 1976 is cradled at the bottom of the coin, with the numeral "1" of "1776" placed beneath the "G" in "GOD" and the "6" in "1976" located under the "R" in "TRUST". The national motto IN GOD WE TRUST is inscribed in a straight line above the year but divided by the harp truncation of Kennedy's neck. For the 1976-D and 1976-S half dollars, the mint mark "D" or "S" is found on the right side of the point of this truncation.