Why 40% Ikes Instead Of 90%?

The 1965-1970 40% silver Kennedy half dollar set the standard for upper coin denominations and the US Mint just continued along with that for the collector versions of the Eisenhower dollars. Precedent was set in 1970 when no 40% Kennedy half dollars were made for circulation but were included in proof and mint sets that year. Interestingly, the Kennedy 40% silver half dollar ended in 1970 and the 40% silver Eisenhower dollar was born the following year, in 1971. Both denominations shared the 40% silver composition (along with the quarter) for the 1976 Bicentennial collector issues. However, that year was the grand finale for 40% silver clad coinage, never to be minted, or even considered, again.

The Mint had been wanting to get ALL of the silver out of the coins since 1964. (Because it was rapidly depleting the strategic stockpile. By the time the Mint started making 90% silver coins again they were trying to get rid of the last of the stockpile.) I doubt the Mint even wanted to make the 40% silver Ikes. They were added to the legislation to provide "pork" for a Congressmans district in New York. One dollar from the sale of each coin would go to Eisenhower College in Seneca Falls, New York. The college needed the money, it was about to go bankrupt. The money from the US coin collectors bailed it out, until the end of the end of the 40% proof Ikes. The college soon went bankrupt again and closed in 1982.