Why were the 40% kennedy's made when the others were clad (dime, quarter). Did they have extra silver to get rid of?
My opinion is that when silver was taken out of the other coins, the US wanted people to start using halves, so they made sure they still had some intrisnic value. The time/cost of refining the silver out would help to stop them from being melted for the silver value. If people still hoarded the halves, it wouldn't be as bad because they were only 40% silver.
Great question and I don't know right off. Great question and I don't know right off. Let me digg into it today and see what I can come out with.
I wish I knew the reasoning behind the 40% halves. It pretty much ruined the chances of halves circulating any better than what little they did prior to 1966. People hoarded anything with silver as soon as the clad coins were introduced, including the new silver clads.
Just a possible theory I think it was done this way to prevent the "average Joe" from feeling slighted by his government..... Think about this the Lincoln cent was changed from aprrox 96% copper to what...4% copper in mid year....Huummmm...Why So AJ would not notice and think his mighty cent was still a semi precious metal. It looks like copper. Now we good back to 1965...If all the coins (ex cent) went scrap metal clad at the smae time he may feel slighted. So the mint could say we are changing the dime and quater but we are not taking the silver out of the halves(magicans trick) Play on works ..Yea just half of the silver from the halves.... I love my wonderful country but sometimes think they do things to CYA .And I would prob do the same in I was in this role in our gov't Just a thought ..Eddie
It was a sop for the silver producing states just like the Bland-Allison Act, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, the replacement provision of the Pitman Act, and the silver purchase act of 1934. Removing silver form the coinage meant the loss of a market for the silver from the western states so they applied pressure to their Congressmen to do something about it an the 40% silver half dollars was the compromise.
I never thought of it that way, but I bet you are probably at least partially correct. Wasn't there a similar situation when they started using nickel in our coins back in the 1860's?
I believe you are correct. The Silver User Association at the time wanted all silver removed as quickly as possible, but some state representatives fought it. I think there was also a psychological aspect to it too. People for two centuries had gotten used to sound money, and it took a little time for the government to convince people that any scrap of trash with a dead president on it was just as good as gold [and silver].
More like when they STOPPED using nickel in the one cent pieces in 1864. Joseph Warton, the owner of the only nickel mine in the US, started twisting his Congressmen's arms resulting in the copper nickel three cent in 1865 and the five cent in 1866.
Here you go! Okay here goes - the best answer I can come up with. I looked through the Coin Wold Millennium Almanac, (which is one of the best sources for Numismatic information I have ever seen). So to para phrase on page 482. and 482 leading up to the Demonetization of Silver, Soaring industrial and coinage demands for silver and the rapidly depleting of the Government's stockpile forced the government to act. Silver demands do not warrant continuation of of large scale use of silver in U.S. Coinage. By June 1965 the consumption for coining purposes was running at 300-million-ounces-annual rate and the treasury supply was down to 1000 million ounces. The treasury faced the prospect of total depletion of it's stocks within a short period of time silvers price then was between $1.29 and $1. 38 per ounces "Public Law 89-91" President Johnson submitted this to Congress in June 1965. The legislation was designed to "ensure a stable and dignified coinage fully adequate in quality in it's specifically designed technical characteristics to the needs of 20Th century life. The need for this legislation was evident: "There is no dependable or likely prospect that the new economically workable sources of silver may be found that could appreciably narrow the gap between silver supply and demand" - the one part of the demand for silver that can be reduced in the government's demand for use in silver coinage". Under the Coinage Act some 90% of the silver formally used for coinage would be made available for other purposes. The new half dollar was a composite - an outside layer(80% percent silver, 20% copper) clad on an alloy core, (21% silver, 79 percent copper). To the naked eye, the coin would be almost indistinguishable from the old half dollar but it would 40% instead of 90% silver. Also the previous post is correct in regard to Western Miners. Page 484, "Actually the Coinage act, like the new coinage was a composite containing something for everyone. For Western Silver Miners, silver kept at least a stake in the coinage, with the new half dollars requiring at least 15 million ounces per year. They were also assured a minimum of $1.25 per ounce for their silver. Silver users did not get an entirely silver-less coinage but they did get silver-less dimes and quarters". That sure was a good question from one of our new people to Coin Talk - you get to thinking you know it all and a question like this come along!
Thank you, that was some research and is better then any answer I could come up with. This is a cool site and I have learned alot in my first week here!
My recollection is as follows: The Mint discovered that their equipment at the time (presses and dies) were not suited to making cupro-nickel clad Half Dollars. Their presses and dies could make the smaller clad Dimes and Quarters but the equipment either could not strike up a clad Half (not enough pressure) or the dies could not stand up to the duty. Keep in mind that nickel is much harder than 90% silver. It simply takes much more pressure to strike a clad Half than it does to strike a 90% silver Half. And it takes much more pressure to strike a clad Half than it does to strike a clad Dime or a clad Quarter. While the Mint's equipment could strke 90% silver Halves (and Dollars) and smaller clad coinage they could not strike cupro-nickel clad Halves. So they settled on making the outer clad layers 80% silver which would strike up nicely. By 1971 they had the equipment that could strike cupro-nickel Halves and Dollars and silver was eliminated from the Half Dollar.
If you can get ahold of the earlier editions they are even better. I considered the Millennium Edition to be a disappointment. If you subscribe to Coin World you can join their Amos Advantage program (it's free) and they have the 1990 edition in a hardbound format for $5. (It isn't easy to find on the website though.) I have all of the editions and I refer to them FREQUENTLY. (I have hardbound copies of three of them and backup copies of the others because the softbounds fall apart after you use them for awhile.) Did some looking and apparently Amos Advantage doesn't have the 1990 edition anymore but I did find it at a couple of bookdealers online for around the $5 price plus shipping. but they were the paperback version.
Do you have a source?? If you have a source I would be interested in knowing where it can be found because I have not heard that - it makes since though but I never read it???
Considering they had presses capable of striking dollar sized coins which would require higher tonnages due to the larger size, I would think they would have been able to strike coppernickel clad halves in 1965. I realize the silver in the dollars was a softer metal , but that would have been offset by the larger size.
