Just thinking out loud here...

While waiting for the 2007 Kennedy halves to be offered for sale (were originally supposed to be for sale today, but got pushed back another 10 days apparently) started to wonder: why do they still mint these? They've hardly circulated at all since they were first minted. The 1964's were mostly hoarded, due to be a new coin, featuring the recently assasinated JFK, and also because people knew that they would no longer be minting silver coins. They tried to get people to stop hoarding them by producing silver clad, but that failed... and when they took silver out enitrely people just generally didn't care anymore, having been weaned off the need for half dollars for normal circulation. They almost ceased minting them in 1987... only ones made that year were for mint sets, and the 1987 P&D are each tied for about the second rarest in the series (rarest being the 1970D, itself also only minted for mint sets) but the kept on minting them. Since 2002 they have pretty much ceased minting them for general circulation and only mint them for the sake of collectors (who seem to be not all that interested either, considering the mint still has 2001 and 2006 halves available for sale!).

Realistically, what do you think the life span of this coin is? I'm amazed that it's been minted for 43 years an counting, considering how little practical use it sees. Only places I've seen it circulate much are in casino towns, where casinos use it mainly for blackjack payouts to avoid the neccesity of having a chip or token worth 50 cents (and for the 50 cent slot machines). When I get them from the bank to search for silver and spend the extras, many people who weren't even born yet when the series started remark on them as something they've never seen. Lots of people I've met aren't even aware they still mint half dollars.

But yet the mint still mints millions of them every year, just as the BEP prints millions of $2 bills that see almost no use before they had back to the bank. I just don't get it...

Maybe they want to keep it going until 2017, so they can do something special for the 100th anniversary of JFK's birth?

Of course the reason it's still minted is that congressional legislation demands it... but why hasn't Congress seen this virtually unused coin as basically a waste? Of course I'll still collect it, this and Lincoln Cents are the only coins I seriously collect by series, but I'm just wondering what the reason for this coin continuing is, unless it's just been forgotton about to the point where they'll keep minting it in perpetuity despite the fact hardly anybody is using them.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

It does seem a little strange to still mint halves and sacs when they don't circulate, but I'm sure the government makes way more money from the coins now than they ever did when they circulated.

 

Um, explain... how exactly can they make money from a coin nobody's using? Collectors couldn't possibly be buying them in enough quantities to make up for the millions that just sit around because nobody wants or needs them.

 

Might have something to do with the fact that we're talking taxpayer money, here. Or, to put it another way, since when is an agency of government obliged to be efficient in order to survive?

 

Without digging, I would think collectors buy most of the rolls at a primium. the mint list 2-20 coin rolls for $35.50. A $15.50 profit an two rolls, not counting built in profit from bullion cost to minted coin.

 

Well not all that $15.50 is profit, have to figure in the processing and distribution costs that come out of that, plus the actual cost of minting the coins. Still, even if it was pure profit, the sales to collectors wouldn't cover the costs of the coins that don't sell, much less come out as a profit, unless more than half of what is minted sells to collectors. Don't have sales figures handy, but the 2001 and 2006 halves are still for sale at the Mint's website, suggesting they're not exactly selling like hotcakes.

 

Well we're talking about the only government agengy in the country that actually makes money (quite literally, lol...), you'd think they'd be more sensitive to waste than anyone else. I'm just not getting what the justification is (if there actually is one) for continuing to mint a coin far in excess to its necessity or demand.

 

ND86 may have an idea on this one

 

Nice thought. Come to think of it, I don't understand it either. I guess they just make them, hoping for them to circulate? I highly doubt it, otherwise banks would get them. Know you have me stumped lol.

Phoenix

 

Do have one theory though... as you know the reason they are still minting the Sacagawea is due to the insistence by a senator from North Dakota that Sacagawea still be honored along with the presidents being honored by the presidential series. Perhaps this has similiar justification? I do know of a senator from Massachusetts who would probably like to see this coin's subject remain honored...

Still that would be a justification for minting this half dollar specifically; I'm not sure what the justification for continuing to mint the denomination that's so little used would be in general, other than maybe force of habit, which is how a lot of beureucracies perpetuate themselves. I don't know I guess... it just baffles me though when people talk about eliminating the penny, the nickel, the $1 bill, or the $2 bill, the subject of the half dollar never seems to come up, which is much less used than any of them (well maybe not less than the $2 bill... I also wonder why we keep printing that!).

 

Friend Troodon, you hit the nail on the head. I had never thought about the fact that halves were hoarded because of JFK's popularity. Before 1964 halves were as common in circulation as 1¢. Your explanation is the best theory I have heard. I wonder what a complete set of BU Kennedy's, P&D, is worth today? Thanks, Douglas

 

Taken from the Mint's annual report for 2004, the total cost to produce and distribute the half dollar was
16.97 cents each, so there is still a decent amount of profit in them. Though the margin has likely changed a bit for 2006. 2004 is the latest report available right now.

 

Also, if you look at the annual report from 2004, you see that the Mint turned over $665 million to the general Treasury after all expenses were accounted for. The amount of profit that we (collectors) directly contributed was $44.1 million from sales of proofs, mint sets, bullion, commemoratives, etc.

And for anyone who was wondering, the US Mint is holding over $100 Billion in gold and silver reserves (this was for 2004 remember) in their vaults.

 

numbers

I found some sales numbers in Numismatic news for rolls and bags of halves and Sacs for 2006 coins.
The mint sold 45,650 two roll sets of halves. 2,282,500 coins
8,690 200 coin bags of halves. 1,738,000 coins

111,250 25 coin rolls of sac,s 2,781,250 coins
5,850 250 coin bags of sac,s 1,462,500 coins
those are sold numbers not minted numbers.
And I'm sure they don't lose anything on shipping and handeling.

 

It is funny how people forget that. The US Mint does not make the rules about what gets minted, the government does. The Mint is just required to get the job done in accordance with the bills the congress writes, passes, and the President signs into law. How those coins get distributed is up to the Federal reserve, correct...

 

That was more a question, so I am glad you clarified it . The last thing we need is for others to start quoting me about money .

Funny how much power "the people" have and never consciously realize or exercise.

 

Nope, the law authorizes their production, it does NOT mandate it.

Why do they keep minting them? Because it is VERY profitable to sell them to collectors. As mentioned it costs about 17 cents each to make them. Vipergts2 shows figures that account for 4,020,500 coins plus there will be about another 2 million not included in those figures from the coins in the mint sets so that makes 6,020,500. That is almost 2 million dollars in profit just from the senoirage alone. Add in the profit from the premium over face that they sell them for and you are close to three million dollars. Now I admit out of a three trillion dollar budget it isn't much, but three million profit is three million profit.

Why are the 2006 halves still on sale? Because the 2007's aren't on sale yet.

Why are the 2001's still on sale? Well in 2001 the mint believed the Fed would still be ordering half dollars for circulation just like they did every year, so they went ahead and produced some 40 million coins in anticipation of their orders. (A reasonable amount compared to the numbers ordered each year for the past decade.) But the Fed decided that they had plenty of half dollars in storage and they didn't need to order any. This left the mint holding the bag. They had already counted the 15 million dollars in seniorage profits into the government accounts. If they melted the coins down they would have to take the money back from the government coffers. So instead they just stored the coins against any future request from the Fed.

Then in 2000 or 2001 the mint decided to sell the sac dollars directly to collectors and it went well. After a year or two though collectors who were having problems fnding 2001 half dollars were keept asking if they could buy them from the mint. Finally in 2002 the mint decided to start selling half dollars directly to the collectors as well. That year they started selling both 2002 halves, which they made in small amounts just to cover the collector sales, and the 2001's which they took from the stockpile. Each year they stopped selling the previous years halves becuse they didn't have a stockpile of them and by law they couldn't strike more. But they could keep selling the 2001's because they still have a ton of them on hand.

 

I'm just getting back into collecting after a long hiatus. For the most part, my collections consists of wheaties that came from a 5000 count bag I bought back in the '80s. I've bought a few mint sets and proof sets from the mint over the last several years, but that's about the extent of it. As luck would have it, I did end up with one of the 1999 silver proof sets which is by far the most valuable thing I own. I'm looking forward to getting back into it.

Anyway, this thread made me smile with the comments on the $2 bill. This probably isn't the best way to make a first impression, but just couldn't pass it up. I have seen $2 bills used extensively on one occasion. It was on a trip to Las Vegas a few years ago with the military. On one of our days off, I went to one of the local "gentlemens" clubs with some friends. They give you change for your drinks in $2 bills so you can tip the "entertainers".