2027 Half Dollar Gets New Kennedy Portrait, Basketball

Next year’s half dollar will bring President John F. Kennedy back to the obverse after this year’s Semiquincentennial Enduring Liberty half dollar became the first one since 1964 without his portrait.

From 2027 through 2030, the half dollar’s reverse will spotlight a different Paralympic sport each year, beginning with wheelchair basketball, while a new quarter series starting in 2027 will honor youth sports.

Over four meetings held since November, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) and the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) weighed designs for the 2027 half dollar, with the two panels offering recommendations ahead of the Treasury Secretary’s final selection.

Under the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 (Public Law 116-330), the obverse must carry a likeness of John F. Kennedy while also being clearly distinct from the portrait used previously. The final design is expected to remain on the half dollar for the next four years.

The U.S. Mint presented 12 obverse candidates, and the two panels split: the CCAC backed candidate #2, while the CFA said the original Kennedy portrait is superior to the new proposals but, among the new options, preferred candidate #4 with Kennedy shown at a slightly older age.

For the reverse, the U.S. Mint presented 14 candidate designs tied to the Paralympic sport of wheelchair basketball. Paralympic wheelchair basketball is one of the best-known and most widely played adaptive sports in the world. It has been part of the Paralympic Games since 1960 and will remain on the program for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympics. Fast-paced and physical, it mirrors many traditional basketball rules while using classification systems to help ensure balanced competition.

Against that backdrop, the two panels again split, with the CCAC recommending reverse #1 and suggesting that the ball be changed to a Molten, the sport’s official game ball. The CFA backed reverse #7, praising its “superior legibility and dynamic image,” while also calling for removal of the border and “Wheelchair Basketball,” moving the 2027 date to the lower left, and more fully depicting the wheels.

Images of All Candidate Designs

Images of all candidate designs appear below.