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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Hobo, post: 1612319, member: 11521&quot;]That may be but I once heard another reason that makes better sense to me. </p><p><br /></p><p>Cupro-Nickel (75% copper and 25% nickel, which is what the outside layers of clad dimes, quarters and halves are made of) is a lot harder than 90% Silver. In 1965 the Mint&#039;s coin presses were perfectly capable of striking 90% silver dimes, quarters and halves. When the price of silver skyrocketed Congress decided to remove silver from these coins so the intrinsic value of the coin did not exceed the face value. </p><p><br /></p><p>The Mint had no problem converting their coin presses over to strkiing clad dimes and quarters but their existing coin presses did not have enough striking pressure to strike up a clad half dollar. It was decided to change the half to 40% silver with the outside clad layers 80% silver. The 80% silver clad layers were not much harder than the previous 90% silver planchets and the Mint was able to strike half dollars that (at the time) did not have an intrinsic value that exceeded their face value. </p><p><br /></p><p>By 1970 or 1971 the Mint had obtained new coin presses that had enough striking pressure to strike clad halves and dollars so the silver was replaced by the cupro-nickel and copper composition of the dimes and quarters. </p><p><br /></p><p>This is pure speculation on my part but that may be the reason the Mint did not strike a dollar coin until 1971 - the Mint&#039;s coin presses simply did not have enough striking pressure to strike up a dollar-size clad coin until 1971. I am not sure but there may have also been problems with dies breaking when trying to strike the large clad coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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