Why Do Some People Want Halves Discontinued?

Interesting question! I never thought of that. It must just be another quirk in our language?! I know my grandparents (I am 50) called used this terminology.



Yes, the general public deems these as valuable and rare. I know my In-laws gave my kids some modern $2.00 bills for Christmas (along with other things) telling my kids they were worth something b/c they were rare. I was put into a hard place because I wanted my kids to know the bills were not rare, were not worth anything but 2.00, and would likely not ever be worth much. Its been quite a few years and they know this now.

The Mint wanted to dump silver from the coinage completely. Retention of silver in the half dollar was something Congress worked out. It was a sop tossed to the western silver producing states in exchange for their support on removing silver completely from the dime and quarter. The 1964 Peace dollar was also part of the deal.

I tend to think the half should be discontinued along with cents. To produce circulating quality coins that generally aren't meant to circulate is a waste of money IMO. If there isn't a need for halves in commerce then whats the point? It's not really fun collecting coins that aren't meant to circulate. Further I think dollar coins should stop being minted until the notes are discontinued. How many government vaults will need to fill up with these useless coins until something is done?

If we resize the half dollar down to the size of a quarter and reconfigure it color wise we will still have the same old problem that people have been complaining about before only of a different nature.

Right now, including the quarter we have 3 coins that are close in size. The quarter, the Presidential dollar, and the Sacajewa dollar. If the half dollar is brought back and shrunk to a size that is comparable to a size all we will be accomplishing is more confusion over fumbling over coins in our pockets in order to pay the tab. This would even be added to if a Susan B Anthony coin was in our pockets.

This doesn't even mention the sometime confusion of the penny and dime as far a size if concerned.

One way of solving this is to do away with the dime completely, because its place would more than adequately be taken up by the nickel and would increase the circulation of this coin. The half dollar could be removed entirely from the coinage (along with the dime) because its place has been filled admirably by the quarter. The dollar bill can be done away with because of the economics of have to replace a current bill every 15 months or so and then redesigning the dollar coin to be half the size of the current half, and then stopping the minting of both the presidential and Native American coin in favor of a new design.

Finally, I would also propose that the $5 bill be done away with and replaced with a suitable coin. From the information that I keep hearing about the $5 bill has a shorter circulating life span than does the $1 bill.

As we all know, coins have a much longer life span than paper money.

halves forever!! all this blasphemy talk about ending halves NEVER! long live the half dollar

ghostrider,

No, it would not be a nightmare, because, when I proposed "downsizing" the half, I also suggested that it be a SIDED coin, and NOT a "round" coin. Similar to the "sided" Canadian loonie, but even more extremely sided, as the Canadian loonie has eleven very slight sides, but I wanted the U.S. half to be a more extremely sided "nonagon" (9-sided) coin that would also be copper in color and thicker than all other U.S. coins (as lonbg as they are still thin enough for veding slots) so that you would never confuse the new halves with any other coin denomination by looks or touch.

TheForce,

Where are many Kennedy halves sitting in those vaults as well, which should be recycled in my proposed, smaller, siided halves. Right now, from what I read, as far as demand goes, we have a 10 supply of halves, AND a 10 year supply of dollar coins. So either yank the $1 bill out of circulation, and get the dollar coin and $2 bill circulating, or get the $2 bill in circulation anyway, and a smaller half in circulation. Smaller halves to save on minting less quarters, and $2 bills to save money on printing less $1 bills. Release about 1/3 of $1 bills and quarters that they normally release, and release enough $2 bills and halves to fill in the gaps.

Different series, but equal in size and they spend the same (one dollar).

There are only two coins to confuse by being close in size: a dollar coin and a quarter dollar coin. It does not mater what is on the coin, only the denomination of the coin.