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When Did The Banks Stop Keeping Track Of Half Cents?

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Sap's Avatar
Australia
16806 Posts
 Posted 07/11/2023  6:13 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
As everybody in this subforum ought to know, the United States used to mint half-cent coins, up until 1857.

This, presumably, meant that at one stage the banks would have had to keep track of the money in people's accounts to the nearest half-cent.

So my question is: at what point in time did the banks stop keeping track of those half-cents?
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Dearborn's Avatar
United States
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hfjacinto's Avatar
United States
7273 Posts
 Posted 07/11/2023  10:10 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add hfjacinto to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
We can make some basic assumptions.

1) Most banks would only have a 10-20 year charter. This would limit the tracking of Half Cents to a maximum of 1877 (based on a bank starting in 1857) as in 1858 banks would no longer be obligated to take them.
2) A 1/2 cent in 1857 barely had any value (and it's metal was worth more than the monetary value, kind of like today with people pulling the wheat and silver coins from circulation)
3) Half Cents only circulated in large eastern cities, they rarely circulated outside of cities.
4) (Conjecture) In 1858 banks probably stopped taking 1/2 cents as deposit, you may have needed 2 1/2 cents.
5) In 1858 any Half Cents deposited would have been sent for melting as they were no longer accepted and the metal was worth more than the coin.
6) The flying eagle and Indian Head cent were very popular with many people trading large cents for the white cents, hence many large cents and Half Cents were removed from circulation
7) During the civil war almost all coins were pulled from circulation.

Based on the above I would believe most banks stopped tracking Half Cents relatively soon after the release of the flying eagle/IHC. I would believe by 1857 country banks wouldn't even see Half Cents so they probably tracked in full cents. I would say by 1859/1860 majority of banks rounded up or down any Half Cent balances.

The only outliers would probably be banks near the Canadian border as large US cents circulated with the large Canada cents until 1920. If a bank for example was in Niagara Falls NY it might have tracked Half Cent balances until the late 1800's (like 1880-1890).

That's my best guess based on what I know.
Edited by hfjacinto
07/11/2023 10:24 pm
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jbuck's Avatar
United States
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 Posted 07/12/2023  12:17 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add jbuck to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
This is a good question. One I have spent time this morning searching for an answer. I have yet to find it. I looked at the various banking and coinage acts passed since 1857. I see that the Coinage Act of 1965 makes them legal tender.

I assume it would not just be the banks, but accountants as well. Were shops and businesses rounding purchase and revenue totals to the cent while the Half Cent was still around? Did the Half Cent ever matter to them? You have 21 Half Cents in the till, the books say you have 11 cents.
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NumisRob's Avatar
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 Posted 07/12/2023  12:48 pm  Show Profile   Check NumisRob's eBay Listings Bookmark this reply Add NumisRob to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
The United Kingdom decimal halfpenny, introduced on February 15, 1971 and withdrawn on December 31, 1984, was never shown on bank statements and you could not put it on a cheque. You could certainly get them from banks and pay them into your account, but I think the main reason they were left off statements and cheques was because they would have caused problems with electronic account systens, which were just being introduced. I suspect this was probably the main reason the coin was demonetised - many European countries had coins of lower value in circulation after 1984. I had a French bank account around that time and could make cheques payable to the nearest centime (one centime was then worth about one-tenth of a British penny).
Edited by NumisRob
07/12/2023 12:51 pm
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kbbpll's Avatar
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 Posted 07/12/2023  8:39 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add kbbpll to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
A corollary question and perhaps a clue, is to see how the US mint accounted for them. Did they always produce even numbers of them? If not, did they record $ volume out to three decimals?

Seems like if a bank recognized a Half Cent balance, they would also pay interest in Half Cent increments. I looked at images of 1800s bank statements, receipts, ledgers... didn't find any showing more than two decimals. So another question instead of when did they stop accounting for Half Cents, is did they _ever_ account for Half Cents?
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Oldgrouchyguy's Avatar
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 Posted 07/12/2023  11:56 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Oldgrouchyguy to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I was under the impression that most late-is sue Half Cents were shipped to Post Offices to use as change? I wouldn't be surprised to see a half-cent in a bank balance due to deposited scrip.
Edited by Oldgrouchyguy
07/13/2023 12:00 am
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jbuck's Avatar
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 Posted 07/13/2023  10:32 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add jbuck to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
So another question instead of when did they stop accounting for Half Cents, is did they _ever_ account for Half Cents?
Yes. That is exactly where I was going.
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Conder101's Avatar
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 Posted 07/19/2023  12:53 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Conder101 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply

Quote:
as in 1858 banks would no longer be obligated to take them.

They were never obligated to take them. Half Cents were never legal tender until the mint act of 1965. So they were LONG out of circulation before they ever became legal tender.
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