When did half dimes cease circulation? Found one metal detecting!

Hi All, I found a seated half dime metal detecting in New Orleans The date is 185? The liberty on the shield is full. I'm soaking it in olive oil hoping to remove the encrusted debris. I am curious to know an approximate time half dimes disappeared from circulation. Any help is appreciated, Thanks, Don

 

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Congratulations! What an interesting find! Liberty Seated Dimes were produced, off and on, from 1837 until 1873. https://libertyseatedhalfdime.com/liberty-seated-half-dime-mintage/

 

Yes, but when did people stop spending them?

Another member here has a twenty-cent piece that he received in circulation, toward the middle of the century if I remember correctly. But the person spending it used it as a quarter. (The similarity with quarters was one of the things that make people hate 20-cent pieces.) So it's not really accurate to say they were circulating at that point.

Somewhere along the line, people got used to using big honking five-cent nickel pieces instead of half dimes. When?

If you're ready to spend some time, the Director of the Mint files an annual report, and one section of that report covers "uncurrent coinage" that was removed from circulation. I think those reports would call out half-dimes separately from nickels. That wouldn't directly answer when people stopped spending or accepting half-dimes, but if the number reclaimed dwindles sharply, that would seem like a pretty good indication. I don't have time to dig into it now, tempting though it is.

 

Thanks very much for the reply! I am also curious about when half dimes disappeared from circulation due to the introduction of the 5 cent nickel.

 

@jeffb gave you the best source. Anecdotally, the only thing I have is from my neighbor who was an early metal detectorist. In the late 1970's I would go out with him, and looked at what he found, since he knew I liked coins. He showed me a few half dimes he found, and said one he found in a deposit with a 1913 buffalo nickel. He said they were touching each other in the hole. He really showed me because it was a Type 2 1913 D, and he said how weird was that, a scarce buffalo in the same hole as a half dime.

It makes sense. Back then silver was just silver, and a half dime for the first half of the 20th century had less than 5 cents of silver in it. I would think when all SL coinage started to get hoarded by new coin collectors is when half dimes would have ceased to circulate, so maybe pre or shortly post WWII. My uncle told me he used to get SL coins before WWII and they went away pretty much after the war since WWII coins were produced in such huge numbers.

All I have, but Jeff gave you a better answer.

 

The 5 Cent 'nickel' coin was introduced in 1866, so there was a 7-year overlap. The Philadelphia Mint still made over a million half dimes in 1871 and 1872.

Trying to determine when they stopped circulating can be difficult. Coin circulation patterns vary depending on the region of the country. For example, Morgan dollars circulated much more in the west than in the east. You also need to consider the Panic of 1873. Historically, people tended to hoard specie currency (gold and silver) during economic downturns, and it’s very likely this played into circulation patterns.

So, the short answer to your question is: “It’s hard to know for certain”

Edited to correct typos

 

@medoraman and @Oldhoopster, great supporting info!

 

You can still find silver dimes in bank rolls today even though the last one minted was in 1964 (April 1966 actually, but that's for another thread).

Gresham's Law in action...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham's_law

 

Here in Calif. we had Morgan and Peace silver dollars circulating because of Nevada's casinos. Back then most of the gamblers in Nevada came from Calif. And silver dollars were used a lot in slot machines and parents like mine used to bring home silver dollars to give us kids as souvenirs. Me and my brother as little kids would play with the silver dollars like pirates with their doubloons

 

Silver dimes are small and when they are toned they can blend in with the clad dimes better than say a silver quarter.

 

I was just thinking, the half dime had a unique size that likely prevented it from being mixed with other, later coins...so I suspect it went out of circulation more quickly than dimes or quarters.

 

The half dollar is a coin that is disappearing from circulation. I rarely see them in change and few if any vending machines will take them.

 

I'm 73, and as a kid in the 50's and early 60's, SL quarters appeared quite often. Most were sliiiick, same with buffalo nickels. About 1985, in Louisiana, a supermarket gave me a V nickel in change. It too, looked like hell.

 

I heard a story from an older collector back in the 1980s about getting a half dime in change as a dime after purchasing gasoline during WWII. I would imagine most half dimes dropped out of circulation after ca. 1900.

 

The other thing is some old coins got back in circulation during the depression when 5 cent was still a “spendable” amount of money if you were broke and jobless so well the half dimes may not have circulated before 1929 I would not be surprised if some get circulated again at that time

 

I don't think any cashier would take a half dime or 20 cent piece.

 

If I was that cashier I'd take it

 

He was talking about half dimes. 5 cent pieces.

 

The rule of thumb is that a silver coin lasted 20 to 25 years. Since the half dime was replaced and became obsolete in 1873, I image that the mint started withdrawing them for circulation a few years after that. I imagine that they became an unusual sight by the turn of the century at the latest. They probably disappeared before that.

The Great Depression may have brought a few pieces out of hiding. People were desperate for money. My grandmother became a coin hoarder during this period. She had close to two rolls of 1938 Jefferson nickels in her hoard among a far number of Barber Dimes and Quarters. She didn’t have any half dimes, which indicates to me that if they did come out of the woodwork in the 30s, they weren’t used for long.

 

Yes I know, I was bringing up that at present time we are seeing another coin that is disappearing from circulation, the half dollar.