Why doesn't my bank have halves???

Friends, what the heck happened? Fifty years ago halves (dollars too) were common, every day, part of change in folks pockets and purses. All the stores had them in their cash registers and back then about the only vending machines were for cigarettes. The cash registers of the day didn't have the technology to calculate your change, remember when cashier ladies used to count your change backwards? Today's modern registers make it so easy for the check-out lady, but there's still no halves in the drawer. Now there's vending machines for just about anything but there are no halves, kinda weird don't you think? Thanks, Douglas

 

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Douglas,

You are correct. The disappearance of halves is as much a matter of habit, technology, and fashion than anything else. But people [non-collectors] don't want them so the banks don't generally carry them. One would think that as inflation erodes the value of money and fewer items can be purchased with small change, the halves would become more popular, not less. But that didn't happen. The Kennedy halve is a great looking coin and it's a shame it is disappearing. Whenever I see one in a cash register drawer, I ask the cashier if I can have it. They are more than happy to get rid of it.

 

I think a similar trend has also occured up in Canada with their 50c. coins as well.I'm sure that one of the Canadian members can confirm this.

Aidan.

 

Mainly putting Kennedy on it, it then became something to save, then with silver hoarding it would be the easiest way to hoard silver.

I think it started even earlier, Franklin halves aren't usually found in vg and lower, but Walkers are often very well circulated.

two quarters just became the preference, halves might work if they were the size of the small dollar, I can't believe they are still making those coins, along with the $ bill.

Canada has no bill smaller than $5.

 

I went to burger king and my total became $2.53, and I payed with a half dollar. The lady just looked at it, and threw it in. I was surprised I didn't get more of a reaction, but it was still neat to spend it. I'm hoping my bank gets half dollars, good luck on getting some at your bank.

Phoenix

 

The thing is, the public just don't like large(ish) coins, and as soon as the half dollar got a commerative nature....it was bound to go soon...

 

I found two circulated proofs so far: a 1971S and a 1989S (both Kennedy halves). The first I got from a 50 cent slot machine in Biloxi, MS (glad I saved it; slot machines do terrible things to coins!) the other I saw in a cash drawer at a Taco Bell in Biloxi and asked for it. Both look very lightly circulated; the features are still sharp and have a trace of the mirror finish still, I think they could grade Proof-55 or so if I bothered to have them graded. The 1971 I have in my type set as the clad Kennedy half example.

Not too common an occurence, but it does happen.

 

Well as I've ponited out in other threads, three things caused people to hoard the Kennedy away when it first came out in 1964:

1. Novelty of a new coin design that just replaced the Franklin half dollar

2. Commemorated JFK, a popular president who was just assasinated

3. People new that silver was on the way out, so they hoarded this away thinking it would be valuable later (as well as any other silver coins, including all pre-Kennedy halves)

In a futile effort to keep people from hoarding half dollars, they lowered the silver content to 40%. Didn't work, people still hoarded them and they were hardly circulated anymore.

By 1971 when they made them copper/nickel clad, people had gone 7 years without half dollars circulating much; cash registers rarely left a slot for them anymore, banks quit ordering them very much, and people had just learned to do without them. Nowadays except for in or near casinos where they're used in slot machines and at blackjack tables (so casinos don't need to make a 50 cent chip or token), they hardly ever see circulation. They still mint them every year but they haven't been minted for the sake of general circulation since 2001.

Basically you can say that Kennedy killed the half dollar as a common circulating coin.

 

Troodon,it sounds like the $1/2 coin is still being struck,but only for sale to collectors.I wonder if that is the case with the Canadian 50c. coin.

Aidan.

 

Yep, and about for the same reason (well Canada didn't change its design besides updating the Queen's portrait, not counting the 1967 centennials, but they did phase silver out of them shortly after we did, and the use of half dollars declined there when people hoarded silver away; as in the US they're now minted in limited numbers primarily for collectors and rarely circulate.)

 

A few suggestions. Find someone that works in a bank, find a neighbor or friend that has a relative working in a bank or just go to a certain bank frequently and be freindly and talk to lots of people there so they get to know you. The reason I say this is most likely they do have halves but they are in a vault and to go get them is a pain in the you know what. Then there is the holding up lines of people for those halves.
I have small accounts in numerous banks in the area. I make sure I go to most of them frequently. I make sure they remember me by always saying hello, how are you, and things like that. Cashing checks or getting a cashiers check helps them remember you.
Yesterday I stopped in one of the banks that I do not go to often and asked if they had any half dollars in rolls. I went to a teller I knew would remember me from asking in the past. She frowned, asked the teller next to her and she had none. She then asked if I really wanted halves or the new dollars. I said halves. She had to lock up, go to a vault somewhere in the back, came back with 10 rolls of halves, asked again if I would like some of the new dollar coins, noticed the line was now getting long for a teller. I smilled, thanked her lots and lots and she smiled and said lets not make a habit of this. I asked why the push for the new dollars. She said they had lots of them and not to many people want them.
The moral of the story is I've found out that many banks do have halves but if they are back in the vault, you'ld better be a nice customer or a relative.

 

So then where are all the halves minted from 1971 until whatever year they stopped making them for circulation ?

If they reside at the Federal Reserve, why did they keep making them in the 90's ?

Are there billions ( however many made in total) sitting in piggy banks ? I don't they were melted by gov't at all. They aren't at the local bank, have to be somewhere.

 

Most reside at casinos or in individuals' collections I imagine... some banks must have a few too.

As to why they keep making them, it's because they can... though as demand for them dropped so did their mintages. When their stock of them reached the point they really didn't need to mint any more for sake of circulation demand, they only minted a limited number for the sake of collectors. In 1970, 1987, and from 2002 to the present, they only made them for the sake of collectors and not for general circulation. (1970 & 1987 are the closest things to key dates this series has; the 1970D, 1987P, and 1987D all have mintages under 3 million.)

 

casinos don't have that many. Slots rarely use coins now, and 50 cent slots never were common. A few halves at some table games, but not tons of them.

Must be bags of them around, like Morgan dollars.

 

Any slot machine that is less than $1 a play uses US coins rather than casino tokens, and most casinos still have them. 50 cent slot machines are still common in some places.

Nobody has a lot of halves, but the most you'll see in one place other than a handful of banks would be in any casino that has 50 cent slot machines. Blackjack tables need them too to pay out on a blackjack (2.5 times whatever was bet) that requires a fraction of a dollar payout.

 

slots have bill acceptors now, issue a receipt you cash in, instead of buckets of coins, almost no coin slots in casinos.

Blackjack pays 3-2, not 5-2. If you bet uneven amounts like $11, most just shortchange you and pay $16 instead of $16.50