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Message:: [QUOTE="Hobo, post: 555817, member: 11521"]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.[/QUOTE]