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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;benveniste, post: 923382, member: 25547&quot;]My read is that it was a combination of the things mentioned here, with a couple of others tossed in. In rough chronological order.</p><ul> <li>The Franklin Half replaces the Walking Liberty. Not only is the coin generally considered less visually interesting, but the mint doesn&#039;t do a particularly good job of minting the thing. I feel this had trivial impact, but others disagree.</li> <li>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.</li> <li>Vending growth created a shortage of nickels, dimes, and quarters.</li> <li>The Kennedy Half replaces the Franklin Half under emotional circumstances. This increases the hoarding which typically occurs with any new issue.</li> <li>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 &quot;easy targets.&quot; So they end up &quot;in the jars&quot; even faster than the lower denominations.</li> <li>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.</li> <li>Within a year or two, inflation rates start rising.</li> <li>Around 1970, Dollar bill change machines become common. Too late, halves lose their silver content.</li> <li>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.</li> </ul><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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