Ray's good Kennedys

All of sudden PCGS started a registry set for Kennedy half dollars. So I started my set and was the very first person to complete a complete a full set of Kennedy half dollars and was ranked as the number 1 set! I was SO excited. Then came along some idiot named Richard Green and he blew me out of the water! What a jerk! LOL We then became best of friends and we started helping each other and made the very best two sets possible. Richard then told me he was selling his set. He said the buyer wasn't happy with all the coins and wanted some of them in better quality. So I shipped out a bunch of my MS 67 coins for his to select from. He returned the ones from his set and the others from my set. He swapped out about 15 coins from my set and converged them with his set. I don't know whom he sold his set to. But I asked him if it was OK for me to add his name to the coins we swapped with each other or those that I purchases from him and he said OK. While some of the coins in my set are only MS 66 coins, they are part of my second set. His name isn't on any coins that we both had our hands on, not fair to him or the next owners. But some of my coins were MS 66's but upgraded to MS 67, or were MS 67 and upgraded to MS 67+. I DID put pedigrees on those coins since they were part of the set(s) we were building. He sent them to PCGS to get his pedigree and his coins and then sold his set. It was a great time until I was notified that he had died and it broke my heart. I just stopped collecting the Kennedy half dollars. It took some time before I became re-interested in them again and restarted my sets.
Started back in the late 90's with a LOT of help from Richard Green. We exchanged numerous coins and information. Our friendship helped both of us make the best sets possible. Patience, trading, buying many and trading/selling off the inferior coins made our sets as good as we could. Not all MS 67's or 66's are equal. Through exchanging of ideas, I made many upgrades, like the 1965 in MS 66 went to 67 on the 3rd try, the 1964 D I got from Richard just upgraded to an MS 67+, the 1976-p clad went from MS 66 to a 67+ as a free submission when PCGS gave out free gradings when they introduced the Secure label back around 2012. He had many errors he provided to me because he didn't want the hassle of upgrading minor changes in the coins. I still have several raw ones to submit, but only in time. Upgrades have become harder to come by so I started a variety set so I could at least add a coin every now and then when I feel the need. To other future Kennedy collectors: get the lowest population coins as soon as you can. They will usually stay very low and might never have an upgrade. You can easily add the higher pops FAR cheaper than we did back in the day. Good luck!
So today I completed my set here and didn't notice, but it appears that I have once again made it to the top of the hill! How long can I stay here this time? Lord only knows but I bet Richard's up there smiling. Thanks for all your help Richard! I couldn't have done it without all your help. By the way, in the remarks section of the coins, I have Populations listed. I placed those there when I "made" the coin in that grade, but the populations have since been upgraded. Even so, those NEW POPULATIONS are NOT all correct! For example, the 1965 regular issue Kennedy's Population is VERY inflated!!! When it was about 18, Richard and myself notified PCGS of coins that were either sold or were at auctions that were SMS coins and NOT regular strike coins. One such time I contacted them with the cert number, etc. Heritage's comment about the coin sated: Although this coin is listed as a regular strike, it has a very deep cameo appearance, although not annotated on the holder:. PCGS just disregarded that message as well as others. When the POP was showing about 18, we were able to notify PCGS about 11 of those coins in the POPULATION report that were actually SMS coins. One of those coins was mine that took them 9 MONTHS to recently change the designation to SMS on an EXPRESS submission. So be VERY careful when purchasing this and other 1965-1967 dated coins. RIP. Your friend, Ray