Just read something about some 65 to 70 half dollars being only 20 percent silver? Is this true or am I misunderstanding them?
Beginning in 1965, the mint began producing Kennedy half dollars that contained only 40% silver. The outer layers contained a mix of 80% silver and 20% copper, while the inner core was composed of 20.9% silver and 79.1% copper, bringing the total silver content to about 40%.
The problem was that the 64's were extensively hoarded, so the mint went to a silver-clad configuration. To my knowledge, it's the only US coin to have such a composition. But they were largely hoarded as well, so by 71, the half dollar went the way of copper-nickel clad.
That's a good question. I imagine an 80:20 clad makes for a better coin - more durable, and appearing more like silver than copper. I don't know how a 40:80 alloy would behave as a coin.
56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese, to be exact. That's a completely different recipe. Alloys behave VERY differently, even with small tweaks.
This is a 50% silver coin after it has circulated a few years: South Africa 2 Shillings 1957 A 40% silver coin would look worse.
That's what I was thinking. It would look like some sort of sickly, feeble copper, right from the get-go.
The likely reason for the 80% silver on the outside of the coin is that the US Mint did extensive testing on alloys or clad compositions in the years before the drop from 90% silver and their goal was to find metals or alloys that would wear well, strike up a design adequately, work such that the existing minting machinery would not be harmed and that had a look and feel combination that would allow the general public to accept the pieces as good money instead of counterfeit money. The combination chosen for the half dollars was most likely one of those options tested in the years prior to the switch and one that they thought was quite nice.
