[Viking2002]

I was going to say that I was born when JFK was in office, but you don’t make me feel so old now. LOL I dabble in coin collecting (when the whim and wallet are both aligned), and have a Brilliant Uncirculated Franklin half from my birth year. There’s just something eye-catching about silver coins.

[hanamizu]

“There’s just something eye-catching about silver coins.”

---

One reason why half dollars stopped circulating was when the Kennedy half appeared in 1964, people were reluctant to spend them and kept them as keepsakes of the ‘fallen JFK’. Another reason was in ‘65 the silver was removed from dimes and quarters and reduced from 90% to 40% in the halves for the next few years.

Interestingly, when the first Lincoln cents were issued in 1909, blacks (they were colored or negros back then) held on to what they called ‘emancipation money’.