half dollars stopped being all silver in 1873.
half dollars stopped being all silver in 1873.
when did half dollars stop being all silver?
1873
these minting operations were rapidly depleting the treasury's stock of silver. prices for the metal were rising to such an extent that, by early june, a dime contained 9.33 cents' worth of silver at market prices. on june 3, 1965, president johnson announced plans to eliminate silver from the dime and quarter in favor of a clad sandwich with layers of copper-nickel on each side of a layer of pure copper. the half dollar was changed from 90% silver to 40%. congress passed the coinage act of 1965 in july. the new half dollars retained their silvery appearance, due to the outer layer being 80% silver and 20% copper. the coin was also minted with an inner layer of 21% silver and 79% copper. the first clad half dollars were struck at the denver mint on december 30, 1965. they bore the date 1965; the date would not be changed for us coins until the coin shortage was eased. beginning on august 1, 1966, the mint began to strike 1966-dated pieces, and thereafter it resumed the normal practice of striking the current year's date on each piece. despite the proclaimed end to the coin shortage, kennedy half dollars circulated little, a scarcity caused by continued hoarding and a dip in production, with the treasury reluctant to expend more of the nation's silver holdings on a coin which did not circulate. according to coin dealer and numismatic author q. david bowers,
kennedy half dollar
in 1838, half-dollar dies were produced in the philadelphia mint for the newly established new orleans mint, and ten test samples of the 1838 half dollars were made at the main philadelphia mint. these samples were put into the mint safe along with other rarities like the 1804 silver dollar. the dies were then shipped to new orleans for the regular production of 1838 half dollars. however, new orleans production of the half dollars was delayed due to the priority of producing half dimes and dimes. the large press for half-dollar production was not used in new orleans until january 1839 to produce 1838 half dollars, but the reverse die could not be properly secured, and only ten samples were produced before the dies failed. rufus tyler, chief coiner of the new orleans mint, wrote to mint director patterson of the problem on february 25, 1839. the orleans mint samples all had a double stamped reverse as a result of this production problem and they also showed dramatic signs of die rust, neither of which are present on the philadelphia produced test samples. while eight philadelphia minted samples survive to this day, there is only one known new orleans minted specimen with the tell-tale double stamped reverse and die rust. this is the famous coin that rufus tyler presented to alexander dallas bache (great grandson of benjamin franklin) in the summer of 1839 and was later purchased in june 1894 by a. g. heaton, the father of mint mark coin collecting. the 1838 philadelphia-produced half dollars are extremely rare, with two separate specimens having sold for $632,500 in heritage auctions in 2005 and 2008 respectively. the sole surviving orleans minted 1838 is one of the rarest of all american coins. in 1840 this mint produced nearly 180,000 half dollars.
half dollar (united states coin)