Why Werent Sbas Made From 1983-99 For Collectors Like Halves

Because even collectors have a thresh hold....

When SBA's first came out the general public did not like them. They look to much like a quarter, in size and color.
I can remember many people saying they spent them as quarters.

Even most coin collectors did not like them.

Ok. so 1980's.....you are correct.. But the answer is really simply ....nobody liked them. I do in retrospect, but I was only ten when they were introduced....so what do I know?

Simple really, you retired the one dollar bill. What choice is there other than the Loonie. Same goes for the Twonie, Toonie, however it is spelled.

Correct, and that needs to be done here in the U.S. for our "Prezzes" And "Native Americanees" to circulate, but, will the U.S. government grow the guts to do it any time soon? I'm in my doubts.




Two halves. One half and two quarters. Four quarters. Ten dimes. Twenty nickels. One hundred pennies. And many other possible combinations I don't care to take the time to list.

However, there actually was talk about, "What if the U.S. general public shunned the dollar coin so bad if the $1 bill were phased out, that the people chose to use quarters, $2 bills and even halves in the $1 bill's place?"

numismo they put a dollar value on the commemorative to signify it as a valid coin and not a medal. You can spend them as real coins if you so choose. There is a current thread where a member even got some of the 1986 liberty commemoratives in change at the bank recently.

I remember when the SBA came out in 1979 and the lash back was instant. The coin was disliked instantly. Most wouldn't take them in change because they were nearly identical to the quarter, and times were tight and people were watching not just their pennies at that time. There really was no push to eliminate the paper dollar to go along with the coin either.

So the mint produced tons of these that went no where and collectors weren't then and aren't now infatuated by them. Unlike the current dollars, other than a date change they would have had nothing to entice you to purchase them. Also unlike previous coins such as the Ike - Kennedy and Sacagawea - which had a recognizable figure on it - people also weren't just going to buy these because they had Susan B. Anthony on them either. Her selection on the coin just didn't resonate with the general public.

Simple answer is because the mint didn't make coins for collectors back then. The collector was viewed more as an annoyance than as a source of revenue. The only things the mint made for the collector market were the annual mint and proof sets and they didn't always even do that. no mint sets in 1982 or 83. (The result of a short sighted idea to save money by not spending any to make the sets. Completely missing the fact that rather than costing the government money they actually made a hefty profit for them.) The government really didn't understand marketing back then and had not yet come to realize that they could extract a lot of money for the coin collectors. Even the first modern commemorative in 1982, the Washington half, was sold for not much over bullion value. They never really caught on until the huge demand for the State Quarters in 1999 caught them by surprize and they started experimenting with striking and selling coins in bulk to the collector. Even then the selling of bags of quarters was a timid thing and they didn't come around to the idea that collectors would buy rolls until the Va quarter in 2000.



They didn't want to but they had no choice.

After they stopped striking the SBA for circulation in 1980 they had a huge stockpile in the vaults. But the dollar coins DID have usage mainly in some of the larger cities with well establish mass transit, trains and subways etc that tended to use the dollar coin as a convenient fare. This resulted in a fairly steady drawdown of the SBA stockpile of about five million coins a month. That draw continued month after month from 1980 to 1999. Then in mid 1999 it was realized that the monthly draw would deplete the stockpile before the end of the year, and by law they could not start the Sac dollar before 2000. So they would have a four month or so period when there would be a demand for those five million coins and no coins to fill the order. So they had to start making SBA's again to fill the gap until the Sac dollars were available. And since the law says the coins have to bear the year of striking they had to make 1999 SBA's.

By the way that monthly draw down still continues today, but now it's up to about 6 million coins a month. At which rate the President dollars currently in storage will last until about 2029. Unless they stop the dollar note.