How and why did the half dollar piece become so unpopular with the public?

The public just does not seem to like large coins (i.e. anything larger than a quarter). TC

 

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I think advances in technology are the primary cause for the demise of the circulated half dollar. Even in the 50's, I don't recall any of the vending machines that would take half dollars. The manufacturers of the vending machines trying to save on production costs were streamlining the machines, and a larger slot just took up more space than they wanted to allocate for it. It was the same with cash registers. The till was being made shallower, and the half dollar roll was just too fat to put into any slot without having the drawer jam. In the 60's, 70's and 80's, Las Vegas casinos were the biggest consumers of half dollars. The casinos used more half dollars than the rest of the country combined. To the manufacturers of vending machines, cash registers and coin changers, it only made sense to save on the cost of production by eliminating it. Of course, microprocessors were the final nail in the coffin.

Chris

 

I bet if they were the size of a dime people wouldn't see them as they do now. I don't remember seeing a great deal of halves as a kid, I was lucky to get a quarter for my weekly allowance...

 

My read is that it was a combination of the things mentioned here, with a couple of others tossed in. In rough chronological order.

• The Franklin Half replaces the Walking Liberty. Not only is the coin generally considered less visually interesting, but the mint doesn't do a particularly good job of minting the thing. I feel this had trivial impact, but others disagree.
• The growth of the vending industry for everything from cola to phones to laundry. Vending machines rarely took halves. As a result, the utility of carrying two quarters exceeded the minor extra convenience afforded by grabbing one coin instead of two.
• Vending growth created a shortage of nickels, dimes, and quarters.
• The Kennedy Half replaces the Franklin Half under emotional circumstances. This increases the hoarding which typically occurs with any new issue.
• The mint removes all silver from quarters and dimes in 1965. Silver hoarding begins. While determining whether a quarter or dime is silver takes only a couple of seconds, the change of design makes franklins and walkers "easy targets." So they end up "in the jars" even faster than the lower denominations.
• While the mint reduces the silver content of the Kennedy to 40%, the fact that it contains any silver at all reinforces the idea that halves are for hoarding instead of spending.
• Within a year or two, inflation rates start rising.
• Around 1970, Dollar bill change machines become common. Too late, halves lose their silver content.
• Use of halves drops below a critical threshhold. Like $2 bills, businesses and banks no longer stock cash drawers with them, and any incoming halves are set aside and go right back to the bank.

 

Vending Machines

I think the increase in Vending Machines contributed to reduced usage of the halves.

Not all of them took halves.

 

My first thought was size too but it would be easy to argue against that, just look at the modern dollar coin. The generations that used the half dollar were also around to see silver dollar circulating. People accepted them due to the generation (what they were use too), the fact that they had silver and as such value beyond the coin. As the silver went away and people searched out ways to make life more comfortable it marked the end of the half. I think people would stop using coins all together if they could find a convenient way. They have pushed it down to the lowest denominations only to make it possible to make change, not as a primary means of making a purchase. And this is why I think the 1/2 and dollar coin will never really come back.

 

The populace of the era didn't like the Morgan because it was too big, and that's why more than 900,000,000 (which includes those melted under the Pittman Act) were held in government vaults.

The same was true for the Peace dollar, and the Great Depression only compounded the problem.

Consumers never liked the Ike as a circulating coin because it was big and heavy.

The Susie B. was never liked because it was too close to the size of a quarter.

Today, if you show the average person a Sac or Prez dollar, they wouldn't know what it was and would be more inclined to think it was fake.

Chris

 

I don't believe this part, I think people for the most part know what they are, they just do not like carrying around change in their pocket. I have used the dollar coin enough and never once had someone ask me "what is this". They may not see them very often, but they know what they are.

 

Yup, this is what I think too.........

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Yup, I remeber it well. We had scads of them and so did everybody else. Then our rulers took the silver out of the coins the following year ( BUT because the half was SO VERY POPULAR and now had St. Jack on them, they continued the half alone at 40% until the American public had forgotten about him too).
The half was quite a bit of money and few kids had them but they were used as routinely as cents or anything else by adults. If you had 75 cents ( hey, have ya noticed they don't put the 'cents' symbol on the keyboard anymore!!) change coming, you received a half and a quarter. Today they just give you 3 quarters because both they and you know they are 'out' of halves. Back then, they'd remark about it as they might today if they had to give you 7 dimes and a nickel. Of course today too, they might ask "Do you need change with that?".
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And hey, we were right after all. Those '64 JFK's are valuable. They performed the precious metals miracle. They more or less retained their purchasing power. Less actually but at least they retained SOME of their purchasing power.

 

I don't doubt that for a minute but it is the consumer/businesses that drives demand.

Until someone can convince me otherwise I stick by this statement:

The public has pushed coins down to the lowest denominations possible only to make it possible to make change. Coins are not used as a primary means of making a purchase.

Even in vending machines I bet the dollar note is growing to become the primary source of a purchase. The coin again becomes just a means of making change. Eventually you will see that change as vending machines take credit cards.

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I don't know how frequently you used them, but I searched $250 Mint bags of Sac's for years, and I would spend those I didn't keep. I put thousands of them into circulation, and I would say that at least 75% of the clerks didn't know what they were. When I'd explain it to them, I would often get a response like, "Oh, cool!", and some would even buy them out of the register. The Prez dollars were even worse because of the crappy edge lettering which looks amateurish.

Chris

 

Lets not forget pay phones which have never accepted half dollars.
I expect that once the public got "used" to not seeing or using half's that they were easily forgotten.

Too bad the Treasury Dept doesn't use that philosophy with the paper buck.

 

It all happened when the wives of the hard working men began to enter the work force. Now, you may find this strange, but she had no time left in the day to sew up the man's pants pockets that eventually wore out due to carrying heavy coins, like the Walking Liberty, the Ben Franklin and finally the Kennedy half dollars.

The men were tired of loosing their loose change, so they just quit carrying those larger coins. Soon nobody wanted 50¢ pieces except the casinos...now they even have their own advertising tokens and don't want to clog the gears with bits of metal off the reeded edges.

The half dollar has gone full circle and is no longer a wanted commodity for everyday transactions.

Happy Collecting

 

Spandex. No one wants to wear spandex bike shorts with large coins in the pockets. And they weigh too much for a fanny pack. Imagine what $40 in halves do to that ? Or the very small clutch bags the girls carry. Low riding jeans would be at your ankles with halves in the pockets.

 

Gresham's Law caused few halves to be spent 65-70. Once they were out of style, it stuck. People probably thought they still had silver and/or were a collectors item.

And they are bulky with the advent of the Paper (non demand) dollar. If its all fiat anyway, why caary a big coin?

 

Chris, Honestly I never spent many Sacs but maybe as much as $300 to $500 in the president series. I don't recall much more than a few long glances before the clerk took them. Maybe the crappy edge lettering (which I agree is crappy) got enough public attention, along with the end of the state quarter program that more people know about them?

 

I completely agree that it is inevitable.