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Message:: [QUOTE="bhp3rd, post: 555808, member: 16510"]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![/QUOTE]

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