If Kennedy was not assasinated, would we still have the Franklin half?

I've always felt that it was a 1/2/3 punch. In addition to the hoarding due to Kennedy and the silver pull, there is the additional factor of the rise in use of vending machines and the fact that they accepted neither halves nor dollars. By the 70's, coins were relegated to use in vending machines only except for the occassional person who would dig through their pockets for exact change. Since they were not accepted in vending, people eventually stopped carrying them. So even if the Kennedy half had not been made and we'd stayed with the Franklin into the 70's, I'd bet by the 80's, halves would have still disappeared from circulation.

 

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Those of us who lived at the time of Kennedy's assassination will attest the shock and upset that November. I was 9 years old. My grandmother had died the day before....and there was more upset over Kennedy within the family and friends more so than grand moms passing.
So I say yes as for the most part Kennedy was well liked....for the most part.
And had he not been shot the Franklin half would of most probably continued until Congress had made a change.
Another factor durring this time was the goverment sort of frowned on coin collecting . 65,66,67 clad coinage ,and the dispearing of silver form our money.
Mint marks didn't return until 1968.
So I do believe the Franklin half would of continued....a few more years.
Congress may or may not of decieded to replace it....
I find it odd that the cent, nickel for the most part,dime,quarter has not changed way before now.....I personally would love to see a change.....but must admit that scares me...as the U.S. mint products these days into a joke!
To ask for new coinage designs could be a huge mistake.....as we know what we have now....and have seen their handy work on new designs.....May or could lead to a major disappointment .

 

I said what I did because I believe halves were still circulating heavily right up until 1964.

 

But they did take half dollars, at least as I remember.

I think the disappearance of halves led vending machine manufacturers to drop support for them, not the other way around. Certainly they could make the mechanisms a tiny bit smaller, and probably a tiny bit cheaper, if they didn't need to support the largest coins.

 

One must also remember that this time peroid the introduction of credit cards,inflation, and the value of the dollar growing smaller.
50 cents in the mid 60's got you two hambergers, two fries,and two milk shakes.
So then the 50 cent piece more or less became obsetlete so to speak....
As inflation grew,and one other factor....and think about this one" the repeal of the blue laws"!
For those whom are unaware what the blue laws were....no commerce was allowed on Sundays. Stores were closed peroid!
No malls, no super markets, nada nothing.... Sunday was for church and family...nothing else.
Repeal the law and store have another day to sell.....the longer the store were open the more goods could be sold.
More goods sold...more demand...the more demand the prices spiked to cover cost of said goods.
The more demand for goods...now Moms who once stayed home to raise the kids,now need to work to afford all the new goods available.
And IMHO the begining of the decline of the family .
As Sunday was again a day for church and family .
You went after services to your grandparents home...you saw them and perhasp your aunt,uncle and cousins.
As one of the last of the baby boomers generation I can attest that durring the late 50's and most of the 1960's that was life in America.

 

And if you didn't worship on Sunday, or didn't worship at all, you kept your mouth shut if you knew what was good for you.

Because if you couldn't buy something on Sunday, you simply went without, rather than buying more on a Saturday or a Monday.

I will say that I liked the visits to grandparents, and I'm sad our kids didn't get to visit nearly so much with our parents -- but Sunday closings wouldn't have helped that, as we live hundreds of miles away. (Would've made it harder, in fact, if gas stations weren't open on Sunday!)

 

I don't recall seeing vending machines that accepted half dollars. But you may be correct and perhaps the cause/effect were reversed as I understand it.

Of course I'm referring to the 70's and 80's. Today, I see the self-checkout stations in some locations now accept half dollars.

 

One of my first memories upon leaving the Army was going to a grocery store on a Sunday. I bought a can of soup and a can opener. The cashier wasn't allowed to sell the can opener due to Blue Laws. It was a simpler and more close knit time.

 

And, occasionally, a hungrier time.

 

Most likely we would still have Franklin halves. Remembers if Kennedy hadn't dies, then under the Act of 1890 the design couldn't have been changed (without an act of Congress which is what it took to get kennedy ON the half) until 1974. And then of course withthe bicentennial jut two years away I really couldn't see them taking one of the founding fathers off the coin. So He probably would have been safe until 1977 or 78. Then consider that at this time the Treasury Dept was VERY much against any design changes to the coinage. (It was a fight to get the Bicentennial coins) The Treasury didn't change their attitude about design changes until they saw the windfall profits the state quarters produced, so it is unlikely they would have approved a change to remove Franklin before then. of course after 2000 they might have thought it would be great to have the half dollar as a multiple coin design annually item as well.

 

Just a thought. The Mint, in my opinion, scored a winner in 2014 with the four silver 50th anniversary Kennedy commemoratives.

The same setup with the Franklin halves would be neat, me thinks, special date or not.

 

2021 will be the 75th anniversary of the Franklin’s first year of issue, in case anyone thinks my idea has merit.

 

Isn't it the 74th year? 2022 would be the 75th year of issue.

 

Questions like this really have no meaning so no answer is possible. They have no meaning because reality is composed of what has come before and Kennedy was assassinated. It is a minor miracle we made it through 1963 without a nuclear war but after this the odds dropped significantly. The steps taken after the Bay of Pigs mitigated much of the danger.

All else wouldn't have been equal if Kennedy were missed but if he had been then we might have ended up with Reagan on the 50c after he died.

 

That's true we might have. Probably the only reason we didn't get him on the dime was because Nancy objected that he wouldn't have wanted to replace Roosevelt due to his admiration for him. But if Kennedy hadn't been on the half we might have gotten Reagan there.

 

Whether it would be a Franklin or not (probably, though) we would have circulating fifty cent pieces around. It is difficult for younger folks to understand this , but prior to about 1965 half dollars were in common circulation and frequently used in commerce. When the Kennedy half dollar came out virtually every one of them was pulled from circulation. At the same time the ending of silver for circulating coinage was enacted and the combination of those two happenings pulled so many of the fifty cent pieces out of circulation, for several years, that people got used to going without them and they just never came back as a common circulating medium. By the way, I was really angry that Kennedy replaced Franklin. I always thought JFK was a flash in the pan compared to Franklin who did more for America than almost any American in our whole history ever did.

 

The Roosevelt Dime set the precedent; the Kennedy Half is, thus, a sequel. Roosevelt is certainly out of kilter with Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington, IMO; it could be argued that Franklin breaks the custom of presidential coins, though, couldn't it?

 

I think they would have discontinued the denomination in '64, or '70. No way they could discontinue the Kennedy Half so soon after his assassination. It isn't used or needed now.

 

The sentiment in this thread doesn't seem to understand that Blue Laws were local, not some sort of national thing. And, as they were local, they varied from place to place. As an 11 year old boy in Boalsburg PA in 1955, the Blue Laws had all but disappeared, but when Dad was transferred back to the Pentagon in 1957, there still were some laws still in place in the Virginia suburbs. Maryland had already all but done away with them by then. When I moved to Memphis in 1974, I was shocked to see that Blue Laws were still in place, as they were here in Louisiana when I moved here in 1980.

Here in Baton Rouge in 1980, grocery stores were open, but hardware stores and barber shops had to stay closed. So, if you needed a hardware item, you either waited for Monday OR you checked out your local Winn-Dixie or Albertson's which sold a limited selection of such items. By the time that Home Depots and Lowes started showing up here, the Blue Laws were all but gone...except for beer and wine sales which could not happen until church was over at 12:30.

 

It probably would have taken a similar path as did the Kennedy.