You're right, Pete and sprchng, there was a legitimate reason for LBJ's lying. Coins were being hoarded big time due to the intrinsic value of silver being higher than the face value of the coins.
Coin collectors were being blamed and legislation was introduced that would have effectively banned coin collecting!
That bill was shot down but Congress did pass a bill freezing the date of 1964 until further notice.
I posted an informative link below to an article by David W. Lange, NGC research director. The article gives a great overview of how from 1964-1967 the date on the coin was probably not the date the coin was struck.
According to Lange's article, which was based on the Director of the Mint's annual reports, both the Philadelphia and Denver Mints struck all five denominations bearing the 1964 date right through 1965. Philly continued striking 1964 silver half dollars into early 1966, as did the Denver Mint with 1964-D dimes. The San Francisco Assay Office, deactivated as a coining facility in 1955, was refitted with equipment to produce planchets in 1964 and actually resumed coin production the following year. It struck more than 15 million 1964 silver quarters in 1965 and another 4,640,865 early in 1966, all, of course, without mintmarks. San Francisco also coined nearly 200 million 1964-dated cents in 1965.
1965 dated coinage was produced concurrently with pieces dated 1964. That would explain why you have the rare error 1965 dated silver coins. I'd love to dig one of those and have my fun little hobby turn into a very profitable one...
http://www.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?IDArticle=711
