What happened to all the half-dollars?
Asked by
AstroChuck (
37609
)
December 28th, 2009
from iPhone
Why don’t I ever see fifty-cent coins anymore? I know the US mints them as I’ve seen them in proof sets. But does the mint release any into circulation? If so, where the hell are they? If not, why don’t they? It seems to me with inflation over the years carrying a fifty-cent piece often makes more sense than carrying quarters.
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20 Answers
* Mafioso accent *
They go away.
They are in drawers and jars all over this fair nation. I know I have a bunch of them put away. Why? I haven’t a clue. My grandmother had a shed load of them and ,now, so do I.
I seem to recall when I did a stint as a bank teller that they were removing them from circulation. I could be wrong, but I remember my manager always asking us to turn them in and we never got any supply of them from the FRB…
People are using them as paper-weights to keep their two-dollar bills tidy.
lol there is one sitting on my two dollar bill in my room right now
They all united to become a whole dollar ! I usually just keep them as souvenirs !
You’ll be surprise as to how many Americans out there don’t even know their own country’s money !
Several times I have given people by mistake Sacagawea or Susan B.Anthony dollar coins thinking it was a quarter just to have the moron or moronette call me and explain to me they cannot accept Canadian or foreign money ???
In 2001, the US Mint stopped minting them for regular circulation, and now only produces them for collectors (proof and mint sets, rolls and bags.). Basically, what happened with the ½ dollars is that up until 1964, dimes, quarters and half dollars were minted in silver, but the melt value of silver rose higher than the face value of the coins. They switched dimes and quarters to copper nickel clad, but from 1965 until 1970, they continued to mint half dollars in a 40% silver clad combination because of the higher value, and because of that and because of sentimental reasons (Kennedy first appeared on the ½ dollar in 1964), people began to hoard them. By the time the mintage matched the demand for the coins, the mint switched to the cupro-nickel composition (in 1971), and by then, people had lived 7 years with a shortage and had learned to adapt to using quarters. Many banks stopped stocking them due to lack of demand once they no longer had any precious metals in them, and vending machines began to be manufactured without the capability of accepting them because no one who had them would spend them. Therefore, once they had enough to go into circulation and were of a composition that people were willing to spend, no one really wanted them, they were hard to come by AND harder to use than quarters, plus everyone was so used to using quarters. Because they do get issued in bags and rolls for collectors, some times post 2001 halves end up in circulation, but it’s pretty rare, if you get one, hang onto it.
I have some up here in the frozen north.
My grandma has a good number of them in a coffee can under her bed if you need some. She gets all excited when someone gets one in change. She makes you trade her for it. I would guess people don’t use them because they are big and take up lots of room plus you can’t put them in a vending machine. ;)
Due to inflation, they were replaced by twenty dollar bills. :-)
Does the US still use pennies? New Zealand has recently done away with the lowest coin in circulation – the 5c coin so the lowest here now is 10c!
I remember having so many pennies in my wallet when I lived in the States and never really used them.
@Rachienz I just took in $6.50 worth of rolled up pennies and traded them for spendable money at the bank. THey pile up in a wooden box I keep on the nightstand, and every so often I roll them and redeem them for bills.
they really are not worth anything unless you have a silver proof or uncirculated….otherwise most are just worth face value due to the sheer volume of coins they produced during their major times of production….they kinda flooded the market lowering the value…..Im kinda hoping they discontinue pennys so I save up this big jug full I have and they will be worth more but then again the copper may be worth more than the value of the penny so I could melt them down
I have used mine under the chair legs in the living room. The store bought protectors cost $.75 each! I saved $4.00! LOL!
i have a lot of them but most of them are the peace dollars other types of silver dollars from 1922 & below.
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