Who Uses Half Dollars Any More?

I spend the ones I've already seached to avoid dumping them.

They musta been asleep at the switch if they don't know about Sacagawea dollars; we were absolutely bombarded with TV and print ads when those came out, telling folks to dump the $1 bills. Then again, it didn't seem to work out very well around here (Mass).

The horse racetrack that I gamble at uses them.

I leave them primarily for tips at eating establishments. I also picked up a hundred IKE's from Russ789 to go alongside them. I shy away from SBA's; too confusing from quarters. Golden Dollars are another good one to "catch and release".

I never re-roll halves from roll searching. Everyone eventually gets spent, usually for under $20 purchases and as tips at restaurants.

I asked some of my co-workers who were children in the 1950's and 1960's and they told me they remember regularly spending Franklins and Walkers back then. Also, halves did circulate somewhat in the early '70's, maybe into the '80's, based on what one of my professors said. She remembers her mother telling her to save all halves she found in circulation (I don't know how many were silver, but she may have found a couple).

It's just that after the Kennedy assassination, and the decision was made to replace the Franklin half with the Kennedy half, people hoarded the coins out of sentiment for JFK. Maybe if the half went to the same copper-nickel sandwich that the dime and quarter were made of in 1965, instead of a silver clad blend, which made people hoard them some more, we'd still be spending halves today.

.50 unit coins work in other countries because they usually have a .10 and .20-unit coins below it and having a .50 is more convenient than a ton of .10's and .20's.

Half Dollars seemed more common when I was a kid (1970's and early 1980's), but nowhere near as common as the other denominations. I cannot even recall the last time I got one in change, or even noticed one in a drawer (if I do, I ask for it).

I was around in the 60's and 70's (though high school age in the 70's). Being an avid collector back then, I was always looking at every coin I could get my hands on.

I see no difference in the amount of circulating halves nowadays as I did back then. It seems all cash registers back then had 2-3 halves (if any) ,but rarely more than 2-3. I do not see a change (and I was working a cash register a few years ago at a place where a lot of coinage moves throughout the day)

If I get them (and do not want them), I like spending them to see the look on the faces of the people I am buying from. I used to do this as a teen also. I remember a long time ago I spent 3 rolls of them at one store and the guy behind the counter could not stop talking of how he had never seen so many at one time.