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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;-jeffB, post: 5411705, member: 27832&quot;]Yes, but when did people stop <i>spending</i> them?</p><p><br /></p><p>Another member here has a twenty-cent piece that he received <i>in circulation</i>, 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&#039;s not really accurate to say they were <i>circulating</i> at that point.</p><p><br /></p><p>Somewhere along the line, people got used to using big honking five-cent <i>nickel</i> pieces instead of half dimes. When?</p><p><br /></p><p>If you&#039;re ready to spend some time, the Director of the Mint files an annual report, and one section of that report covers &quot;uncurrent coinage&quot; that was removed from circulation. I <i>think</i> those reports would call out half-dimes separately from nickels. That wouldn&#039;t <i>directly</i> 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&#039;t have time to dig into it now, tempting though it is.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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