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

Gresham's Law means that if there is a perceived difference in desirability among the tendering possibilities a spender has, he will spend the least desirable possibility first, and the most desirable possibility last.

If a person in medieval England had a clipped and worn silver penny and an intact and new one, then he'd spend the former first.

If a person in America in 1967 had two clad quarters and a 40% half, and he perceived the part-silver half to be more desirable, then he'd spend the quarters first.

If a person in 2010 America perceives a half dollar of any sort to be more desirable than two quarters, he'll spend the two quarters. If enough people think the same way, halves will never circulate for long before somebody puts them in a coffee can.

 

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I personally have always liked the half dollar from a collectors standpoint
But as a consumer not so much kind of heavy in the pocket!!

 

Exactly ! I once hit a $500 jackpot on a $1 machine. I couldn't wait to cash in all that silver ! There is no way to lug that bucket of money around with you. LOL

Sure wish I had kept them now, though and all the other ones that went through my possession.

 

I guess you missed the latest press conference with the Fed Chairman where he claimed he couldn't explain the rise in Gold prices according to normal market analysis.

The fact is that both Gold and Silver, but especially Gold, is kept very high on the market because of the misconception that a relative few, mostly paranoid and ignorant individuals, have that the world is coming to an end and that the only real item of value to hord savings with is gold.

These folks are in for a real rude awakening when the economy storms back, which is going to be sooner than later, and gold prices collapse.

All that being said, all market prices are singularly based on perception. The real difference between Clad coinage and silver is that you sure as heck can't pay your taxes in Silver, which gives the clad coinage and paper money REAL value that gold and silver can never have. If the government wants to strengthen the US Dollar, all they have to do is raise taxes and tarrifs.

Ruben

 

This has turned into an excellent thread, with great points being made by all!

 

I have seen Gold soar and fall and soar again. I have made a few bucks and lost a lot of bucks. Metals markets are so violatile because they are underfunded and so speculative in nature. A broker knows that it doesn't matter what the price is, the money is made on the transaction. A sell offsets a buy and the margin keeps him alive. Booms always end just as Busts don't last forever.

 

Silver did play a huge part in hoarding the early Kennedys. You're probably right that many of the people putting these away would have done so even if they were aluminum but being "good silver" was a primary factor for a large percentage of the people saving them. Look at how much more difficult the 1965 half dollars are to find just because they're only 40% silver.

 

All value is belief and nothing else. Even the value of the money in which we measure things is based on nothing but belief. If we come to believe it is too common then its value decreases and we have inflation.

Much of belief is mere inertia. As MrBrooklynn pointed out, why is silver which is less common and more important than gold valued at a small fraction of its price? Inertia. People are used to a lower price and people have never been more superstitious thanb they are today. So silver stays low and the crooked banks work to profit oin the price changes.

 

There was really no use for them other than being pretty until the industrial revolution. So that might explain about 100 years worth of gold's value but not 4000 years worth before it.

 

I hit the quote button too soon with my simpleton answer as you have covered the point much more eloquently.

 

The Roman's also used gold and silver for their coinage in addition to bronze.

 

I think the ascendancy of vending machines were the primary culprit. They weren't designed for anything larger than quarters. When purchases were primarily person to person, the Silver Dollar and Half Dollar were king and queen respectively. As soon as they dropped legal coinage (Silver and Gold are our only CONSTITUTIONAL money), why bother? The public just didn't want more than 4 coins, none of which were worth real money.

I actually remember the decline as Silver Dollars were popular birthday gifts back in the early 1960s and you could still ask for them at the bank right up till the late 60s.

The halves lasted about 10 years longer and the mint and banks just stopped ordering them because customers had 4 slot registers. Just enough for cents, nickels, dimes and quarters. You'll notice the decline of fifties and hundreds at about the same time. Once again. 4 slots for cash and anything else was just an inconvenience. Now 50s and 100s have made a comeback due to inflation, but there is a very marked class difference in the acceptance of the larger bills.

 

Marshall, I think you make a good point about the vending machines but I doubt that was enough to push the half into oblivion. I'll also sure the public never cared what was legal tender...as evident by the fact that they didn't generally use any legal tender until the flying eagle was released. I'm not sure dollars and halves were ever that big. Morgans definitely largely didn't circulate.

If anything, the coin of the people was the nickel.

Ruben

 

How many times you see an old pic with a sign "Beer 05c" and "5c Coffee" ? I agree, that for a long time the nickle was the most popular coin it seems. Of all my junk coins, the nickles show the most wear anyway, which seems to strengthen your point. I also imagine that when someone spent a Morgan, they got a lot of V's and Buffalos in change ? I have an aunt that is 97 who remembers riding in a Western Show as a girl. She's pretty sharp, so I will ask her opinion. She might have some insight ?

 

I love half's, but kids at mcdonalds are to stupid to know what they are these days. They take counterfiet pens and mark em to see if they are real. <- joke but it be funny to see it happen, kinda like checking muffler bearings on the car or head light fluid.

 

Now we did take our truck in for an annual smog check. It has a square receiver for the trailer hitch. Of course, the hitch wasn't on when we went. A girl working there took the "sniffer" from the smog computer and put it in the receiver and started the truck. I was watching this through the window from the waiting room. She played with the machine and wiggled the sniffer, etc. Finally came inside and told me she couldn't give me the smog certificate because she couldn't get a reading on the machine. My wife was there (she's our driver now) so I had to be nice. LOL And this represents the future of our Nation ?

 

Now that is just too dang funny.......:mouth:

 

It wasn't because she was a girl either, the guy she asked to look at it didn't catch it either. I started to tell them, but the wife stopped me. I am sure glad neither one of them was in my platoon. LOL

But you know, you just can't fix "stupid".

 

In the words of Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does, Sir".....

 

I subscribe to the vending machine theory as well. Once quarters became the coin of choice for vending machines, the need for .50 cent pieces was reduced.

The 4 slot coin change machine further contributed to the decline of the half dollar. Nowadays, pretty much only collectors have them.