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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;fusiafinch, post: 927642, member: 18382&quot;]Green18, you basically have it right.</p><p><br /></p><p>Ironically, the very popularity of the Kennedy half started the demise of the half dollar as a circulating coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>As you said, first, the Kennedy half was hoarded as basically everyone in the western world wanted one as a memento. </p><p><br /></p><p>Then, silver was taken out of coinage for 1965 but the Kennedy half still had 40% silver, and that led to further hoarding of the coins because of silver speculation. </p><p><br /></p><p>By the time silver was removed from the half in 1971, the public had already gotten used to not using it in circulation. From my personal experience, I do remember halves in change in the 1970&#039;s, but they were getting pretty scarce. At least they were still relatively smaller in size than the Ike dollar, which didn&#039;t circulate very well either.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the smaller sized dollars came out, the half become sort of an oddity. And now, we&#039;re just used to using quarters and not halves. Even the small &quot;golden&quot; dollars have a hard time finding wide circulation.</p><p><br /></p><p>Another irony is that the Kennedy half is still very popular with collectors. Over the past 20 years, the Mint has even introduced new collector versions, like silver proofs, special matte finishes, and collector sets. It&#039;s still a cash cow for them, and as long as they can make money on it, they&#039;re still strike them.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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