Looks like Kennedy halves took a nose-dive from 2018-2019. I found 2 in this week's boxes. Both P. Hopefully I can find a D to finish the set. http://www.coinnews.net/2020/01/31/u-s-mint-produces-11-9-billion-coins-for-circulation-in-2019/
While I do like and collect them, I wonder how long before these get cancelled? Even though there is a rather sizable following of the series, they pale in comparison to the Lincoln Cent in popularity. Not to mention they are no longer used in commerce.
Wouldn’t that take some kind of act of Congress or something? Lord knows they can barely tie their shoes. And then, only in the manner in which their lobbyist pals tell them they can. What would it take t cease production of a coin?
The Federal Reserve stops ordering them because they don't need them, this has already occurred with the Kennedy half, and then the mint just stops making them. The coin is still AUTHORIZED for production, but their is no requirement that the mint actually produce them unless to satisfy requests from the Federal Reserve. The mint only makes the Kennedy halves, NA dollars, and Innovation dollars because they can make a profit selling them to collectors. There is no requirement that they HAVE to make any of them.
I always thought that the NA dollars did have an absolute minimum...will look up the authorization when I get home.
Yes they did, it was roughly 20% of the mintage of the President dollars. Since they aren't making other dollar coins, 20% of 0 is a minimum coinage of 0. So they don't have to make any. (Of course since this year they are going to make George H. W. Bush dollars, they do have to make NA dollars this year to at least 20% of whatever Bush and Innovation dollars they make.
