Just thinking out loud here...

Ah ha. I see see now the "entertainers" are behind the plot to get rid of the $1 bill. knew it was a conspiracy.

 

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What a simple way for them to effetively double thier income. Thats funny. :thumb:

 

Rolls of half dollars contain 20 coins. So....

45,886 roll sets(updated number) = 1,835,440
8,690 bags = 1,738,000

Total sold...................................3,573,440

The mintage for 2006 half dollars was 4,400,000 so thats 826,560 coins unsold.
Proofs and satin finish is not included in the mintage total.
The 200 count bags are no longer for sale but the 2 roll set is.
With a cost of only about 17 cents per coin I would say the mint makes plenty of profit(Seignorage) on half dollar coins.

 

It's mostly political. The Democrats consider Kennedy a hero and even the Republicans have no desire to try to eliminate the coin that memorializes such a popular President. This is similar to the cent. Republicans would be strongly opposed to eliminating a coin that depicts their party hero.

Thus we keep them...

 

I think the kennedy half is the best looking of the clad coins. It's getting to be a pretty large set to collect. I almost started collecting the proofs at one time, but never quite got around to it for a reason I don't remember.

Maybe the kennedy and lincoln cent will be eliminated in the same year, to keep the elimination of political party heros even at one to one.

 

Don't recall that the Republicans put up much of a fight when the Eisenhower dollar was eliminated for the sake of the SBA dollar (most of the arguments against it had nothing to do with no longer honoring Eisenhower anyway), but may be wrong there... anyone know how that debate went? Not trying to insert a political discussion into this thread, just curious...

I can see the democrats putting up a fight over say, taking Roosevelt off the dime; he's historically the highest rated democratic president and had a huge impact, both in getting the country through the Depression and WWII. Kennedy only served 2 years and didn't really make much of an impact in that time. I know of at least one author who has pointed out that sympathy over his assasination has caused him to be consistently overrated (and this from an author who if anything is a little left of center, so I know it's not just his political bias talking.)

Also wouldn't be talking about taking Kennedy off the half dollar and replacing him with someone else, but eliminating the half dollar altogether. However a better solution may be to try to redesign it some way, even keeping Kennedy on, to generate enough interest to actually try to get it back into practical circulation. (However much money the Mint makes selling half dollars to collectors, the seignorage they'd make if they could get it back into something that's actually commonly used for circulation would be much more, and a justficiation for minting them in much higher quantities than the currently do!) Again, 2017 would be the perfect time to do that, being the 100th anniversary of JFK's birth... wouldn't be suprised to see some kind of proposal along those lines as that date gets closer.

 

maybe put a front-facing portrait of kennedy on the half (similar to the jefforson nickel), and then change the back

 

you do realize that this is a six year old thread, don't you?

 

when I was a kid, halfs were common everyday use, even $1 weren't that rare, I worked at a grocery store and we'd get $1 coins all the time. I don't know what happened we don't use halfs anymore. I was in a tavern in Plainfield that passed out halfs in their change, guy said he went to bank every day to get rolls of them. thanks, douglas