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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Numbers, post: 627492, member: 11668&quot;]Perhaps they could, but not with aluminum.&nbsp; What you&#039;re overlooking is the fact that the compositions of the clad coinage were very carefully chosen precisely to make sure that existing vending machines could take them.&nbsp; This is one reason for the complicated three-layer structure of the coins: it&#039;s making sure that they&#039;ve got the same electrical resistance as a 90% silver coin, since that&#039;s one thing vending machines often check in order to reject slugs.&nbsp; Ditto with the Sacagawea dollar--the reason that there are 1999 SBAs is that the Mint didn&#039;t have the &quot;golden&quot; alloy ready soon enough, since they had to do extensive metallurgical testing to find a composition that would be very different in color from the SBAs but indistinguishable to a vending machine.</p><p><br /></p><p>The zinc cents weren&#039;t handled so carefully, as rather few vending machines take them; those machines did have to be readjusted in order to accept the new cents.&nbsp; But the main reason why the aluminum cents were rejected in 1974 was a vending machine problem too:&nbsp; If you put a regular copper (or zinc) cent into a vending machine that doesn&#039;t accept pennies, it just drops into the coin return tray.&nbsp; But if you put an aluminum cent into such a machine, it&#039;s so lightweight that friction can stop it halfway through the mechanism.&nbsp; The machine is then jammed until a repairman comes to remove the coin.&nbsp; Some vending machine companies demonstrated this at a congressional hearing, and that&#039;s why we didn&#039;t get aluminum cents.</p><p><br /></p><p>Unrelated note on half-dollars: There&#039;s been no change of policy on these; they&#039;re still a circulating denomination.&nbsp; It&#039;s just that there&#039;s so little demand for them that the Federal Reserve hasn&#039;t ordered any from the Mint since 2001.&nbsp; If the Fed ever runs low and needs more, then more will be struck and issued.&nbsp; Meanwhile, small quantities of ordinary-finish business strikes are still being produced every year for the Mint&#039;s bag and roll sales, in addition to the mint set and proof set coins.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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