Should Halves Be Reduced In Size Like Dollar Coins were?

This was an idea I have always thought would be a good one. Make the half between the size of the Quarter and nickel (even though its a very small gap) and make it copper in color, and make it an octogon-like shape, much like the Canadian $1 coin which is not exactly round, so that the new halves can be distinguished from nickels and quarters right away by touch, and make it slightly thicker than the nickel, but just thin enough to work in all current vending machine slots that take small dollars. The size difference would help with people thinking halves are too big and bulky to carry, and the octogon-like shape will make it so that the copper halves are not confused with cents, and if one half weighed less than two quarters, many people may go for it.

What do you guys think?

 

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I'm afraid the only people who would "go for it" would be collectors, since that's basically the way it is with half dollars, and has been for years. Unfortunately, it's a non-circulating denomination, and redesigning it won't help the public to accept it, any more than they accept dollar coins. That being said, I appreciate your descriptive prowess!

 

Forgive my repeating of things but, unlike small dollars, I know that if vendors and self checkout companies retooled to accept and dispense new small halves, they would circulate, just as $2 bills would. $2 bills and halves don't have the problem that the small dollar coin does: Competition of the $1 bill. There is no 50 cent bill or $2 coin, and as people in Congress and dollar coin lobbyists have said, why would stores stock their cash registers with TWO forms of the same denomination? $2 bills and halves would not have this problem. The only problem for cashiers would be, where to put the junk since the $2 bill and half slot could no longer be a junk slot.

 

The coin is not really needed anymore, esp. if the dollar coin circulated.

 

I agree is serves no real purpose in commerce since it now takes a couple of dollars to buy anything that used to be four bits. And nobody bothers to collect them any more....don't I wish.

 

Even if you GAVE halves and deuces away, they wouldn't circulate. The folks receiving them would hoard them thinking that they would be worth a small fortune in thirty or fifty years.

Where are all of the halves and deuces now? Sitting in drawers waiting (with false hope) for the value to go up.

 

This would not be true if vending machines and self checkouts dispensed them as needed. There would be two groups of the general public: The hoarders, and the complainers. But after so many $2 bills and hales got into circulation, the hoarders would get sick of hoarding them, or realize that they will be nothing of value in the near future, and the complainers would get used to it. But IF "small" halves start being minted, and these industries dids adapt, I am sure many people would hoard "big" halves.

With the older and current ones, that may happen, in a century or so, IF they redesigned the $2 bill, and changed the size of the half.

Also, the half IS more useful than the small dollar as it stands now, until they get rid of $1 bills, because as I said, many retailers think "Why would you stock your cash drawer with TWO forms of the same denomination?"

Alright, I guess I'll try to quit repeating this. I've said my piece and it isn't really helping the matter anymore and I don't want you guys to get annoyed as some of you may already be.

 

Uh, even though the Susan B's are round, they still look octogon. I don't want to repeat history. Especially THAT specific part of history.

 

You probably wouldn't want to do an octagon. Multisided coins, especially when used in vending machines work better with an odd number of sides (it allows them to roll easier) and I would consider nine sides to really the minimum number of sides. Also a coin with an odd number of sides is easier to strike, especially as the number of sides increases. The reason is that you can still use a round planchet. (A multisided planchet give you the problem of having to make sure it is orientated properly in order to drop into the coining chamber. If the planchet is rotated any at all it doesn't drop in and you get mis-strikes.) Using a round planchet the force of the strike is used to force the metal out into the "corners". With an even sided coin the sides are opposite the sides and corners are opposite the corners. The planchet can't be any larger than the side to side distance and a greater force is needed to get the corners filled. With an odd number of sides a side is always opposite a corner and the distance is much closer to the diameter of the largest circular planchet that will fit so less force is needed in the striking. As the number of sides increases the distance from side to corner gets closer and closer to the diameter of a circle. But is you go with too many sides then you lose the distinctive multisided appearance. Personally I find that nine is a good minimum, and 13 to 15 is a good maximum.

Having said all that I don't really see a good reason for changing the coin. If you did and got rid of the dollar note they might circulate if they weighed less than two quarters, but I don't see a significant advantage to them.

 

I am now spending every half dollar instead of dumping at banks, I am only one person, but if others start doing it, people will think that they are not to be hoarded anymore, and then they will go to the drawer where they have stashed all their half dollars and spend them also, but haha, they will be spending their 9 and 4 ohs.

 

You know, by saying ""octogon-type" coin, I was meaning MULTI-sided coins, but not nessacarily a "true" octogon. I SHOULD have said "muliti-sided coin" Sorry about that. What a dumbass am I. LoL But thanks for the lesson on the "odd" ammount sided coins working better on a new, smaller half. I would suggest a "Nonagon" as the shape for the new half, which is of course, a nine-sided coin, either that, or a septagon/heptagon which is a seven sided shape, might be an option. The less sides on the multi-sided coin, the more extreme difference from the "round" nickel and quarter.

No, actually, I think wider circlation of the dollar coin would kill the circulation of the half even further. The reason: Six circulating coins. Five slots in most standard cash registers. (Unless we aloso kill the cent, but then the half would be in the doghouse again when the $2 coin comes)


thecoinlover:

Susan B. Anthonys may have looked octagon, but to me, they never FELT octagon. They always felt like a round quarter to me with that reeded edge. What I am talking about would be like a slightly more extreme version of the Canadian dollar coin. There should be NO way of even a blind person mistaking the half I am talking about creating from a nickel, quarter, cent, or Canadian dollar.

 

I think a 9 sided coin would be neat. I'd prefer it to be made out of nickel myself only since nickel has some intrinsic value that would still be far enough less than 50 cents that they'd be both spendable and hoardable. I also don't really like seeing copper in coins. Copper is for the penny. Maybe an alternative solution would be to make 50 cent bills. Not something I would prefer, but maybe other people would.

 

Canada went to a smaller half dollar in 1968. Instead of a half being 100% heavier than a quarter, it was 38.9 % heavier. Yet halves have now completely disappeared from banks and ciculation although small quantities are still being made.

 

Hmm I suppose the practicality of a half is suspect since you can only use 1 at a time before needing a dollar instead. Plus you only have a 50/50 chance of needing one anyway, which could be 2 bits just as easily. I like them though.

 

Back in the earlier 1950's, it really seeemed like halves were part of the circulation mix. It was an illusion though. I worked in an A&P Supermarket. We never ever got halves from the bank. We got by using quarters. Customers would give us halves, so usually there were a few halves in cash drawers with a great many quarters. We learned not to offer a half dollar to lady customers. Many of them had a change holder that did not include a slot for halves.

 

By the way, these Wikipedia articles explain the concept of such an "equilaterally curved polygon" quite nicely:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_pence_(British_coin) (fourth paragraph)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curve_of_constant_width (for the mathematically inclined )

And yes, the current size of the half dollar coin would be a problem in pretty much every country. Then again, hardly any US coin, except the quarter maybe, actually circulates in the sense of being given in change and then spent as part of a payment again. And that is not a size issue but a question of habits, I think. So it does in my opinion not actually matter how "handy" or "bulky" the half or one dollar coins are ...

Christian

 

If you want to ensure the popularity of the newly redesigned half, consider making one more change and instead of quarters make 20 cent coins. People now use 2 quarters instead of 1 half, its quite easy and no one feels the need for a half, but this wont be the case when instead of 2 quarters you gonna need at least 3 coins. New, small halves might get very popular, IMHO.

 

Wow! Finally an idea that will work.

However I don't think it stands a chance of getting through Congress. Nothing, at present, stands a chance of getting through.

 

Interesting idea. However, the quarter is the workhorse of our coinage system and will certainly be around until coins are extinct and we go electronic. TC

 

I know very little about mint machinery, but how significant do you think these challenges are? One of the reasons I ask is because the Philadelphia Mint was able to strike hexagonal coins in 1943, seemingly without any real problems.