Is The Half About To Die? Say It Ain't So.

I have searched several thousand in halves and spent dozens, I used an old prescription pill bottle that is the same diameter as the half's. I love when the cashier says "WOW, one of those... How much it is?" I usually try to remember to tell them to pass them out over the rest of the day too.

I know you want them in circulation but I'm hoping they get hoarded and the bank has to order more, I've seen several marked coins, a paint/ink mark on the eagles tail feathers. The oldest I have found was a 1968d 40%, it had an interesting dual tone (obv/rev) so it would have been easily missed on an edge only check, special note to other CRH's please be lazy and leave them for me!
The newest I have found is 2001, maybe one 2002 but nothing beyond that.



True but then there is the possibility of American Half Eagles in .999 silver.

As a circulation coin it has been dead for decades. It ain't coming back for real coin use anytime soon, if ever.

I have a few places that set aside anything "weird" for me and I get more SBA's than halves these days. I actually even get more odd foreign coins than halves.

There are many coins that just don't make it with people. The baby sized dollar coin is one. The Half Dollar coin too is getting tuff to distribute. Yes people will take them but many places just don't like to take odd coins and the Half is becoming just that. Same too with the $2 bill.
When any such coins slowly loose out on circulation, less and less people see them. And the less that see such coins, the more others become leary about even taking them. The only Half Dollar coins I now see is when I ask for them at a bank.

i think 2014 would be an appropriate time to phase out the half (50 yrs anniversary and all). do I want them to? no. will they do it? probably not. who knows when they will stop making them.

All federally issued US currency from 1792/3 to date in all denominations, including obsolete (2 and 3 cent, 20 cent, gold, etc.), and including all federally issued banknotes (silver/gold certs, nationals, legal tender notes, etc...excluding state issued obsolete notes) are still legal tender and must be accepted for all debts, public and private.

A debt is not a purchase, which is why it is 100% legal for stores to refuse to accept whatever denominations/styles of currency they want (including outright refusing purchases in US money)...however, if you decide to pay off your credit card in old currency, albeit legal tender, odds are you may have the police called and get arrested for counterfeiting (seriously, how many average people know the government makes more than 4 types of coins or more than 6 types of bills, and how many younger people know small portrait bills are real?)

Bottom line: legal tender is for debts, but it wouldn't stop any law enforcement agency from attempting to charge you with counterfeiting if they wanted to try.

The U.S. Treasury states quite clearly:

There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.

Coinage Act of 1965, Section 31 U.S.C. 5103

United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.


**Note should be given that gold and silver are legal tender in and of themselves in Utah now, so technically that should extend to foreign gold and silver coins, as well as gold and silver rounds.

@Fox

I have spent a good deal of my life as a teacher and I really enjoy teaching teens. I am hoping I am not making an error in this, but you seem to be a young man with a mission much like I have seen many junior high school to high school students over the years.

I just hate to see you set yourself up for disappointment and looking back in later years and wondering why you did not spend your money on something that was more lasting and would bring you more return in the future.

As much as you would like to see the half and 2.00 bills spent, since I have been alive - the early 60s, the public opinion has been the same. They do not want to use larger coins and 2.00 bills... period.

When I was younger I also loved halves and $2.00 for the novelty of them. I wished people liked them. But after 50 years of liking the idea of using them I can say it is so very highly mathematically improbable (read as impossible) for a dedicated individual like yourself to be able to turn the tide by organizing something like this at one store in this whole nation.

And even if through some miracle this would snowball into wide acceptance by Walmart of distributing them, just like the dollar coins... people would refuse them after the novelty wore off. One or two are interesting to see b/c they are "rare" to most people. But when they get more than one or two, they reject them - the last 50 years shows this.

Why don't you take your money and maybe invest in your own coin hobby and buy a better coin that you will be able to pass on in later years? Put your money where it actually will give tangible results that will last.

You have a GREAT drive. I am not saying to abandon your dreams or set your goals to a lower level. I am suggesting you make your goal one that will actually benefit you/someone in the long run. A person with your drive can do a lot of good for a cause which will benefit people.

If the right politicians had half your drive we would not be in the mess we are right now in the US.

I believe the Presidential dollars haven't been issued for circulation for a couple years now, since there are so many in storage and no one wants them. Same for the Sacagawea's.