Talk:Half dollar (United States coin)

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The only place I've encountered half-dollars is at Renaissance Faire, where almost everything is priced in increments of 50 cents to keep the change situation simple. However, I've only seen this in Southern California, so I'm not willing to add it without reports from other people in other areas. No point putting it up if it's confined to one location... 82.3.43.78 13:46, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

The place I most frequently encounter half dollars is at the poker table. In the casino cardrooms in Atlantic City (and presumably in cardrooms all over the United States), half dollars are used for the ante, rake, or bring-in bet (depending on the game structure) in the low-limit seven-card stud games ($1-$3 Limit or $1-$5 Spread Limit in my experience). I've added this to article in the trivia section, since people may be wondering what half dollars are good for. Feel free to critique it. --Hex 16 01:13, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Or black jack where smallest bet is $1, $3, or some odd number. In that case, half dollar may be required for blackjack. Using 2 quarters does not too much sense. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 05:32, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm suspicious of that explanation as a sole, or even main, reason for the half-dollar's rarity. Mintage figures for halves were much lower than for quarters for quite some time before the Kennedy assassination. While that sequence of events may have finished it off, it seems to have already been uncommon prior to it. Nik42 07:42, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

In the US, the Half-Dollar on the Purim holiday to represent the biblical Half-Shekel donation to the Temple. The custom anywhere is to use three halves of the coins which serve as the local currency. So three Half-Dollars per person are used, and donated to charity or handed to someone in need that day. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.85.50.12 (talk) 18:17, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

I can remember when the half-dollar used to be fairly commonly seen in general circulation (by "used to be" I am speaking of through the 1970's), although not as common as the smaller coins. Nowadays I generally see it only in places where I would have seen the silver dollar back then, i.e., mostly in casinos. Meanwhile, the silver dollar has all but disappeared from casinos, replaced by casino tokens. I believe that the primary causes for the rarity of the half-dollar are that people do not like carrying it because of its size and weight (it gets heavy in your pocket) and the fact that I have never seen a vending machine or public telephone that took half-dollars. Its place can easily be taken by two quarters. I believe that the use of coins in general will decline in the future as more and more people use debit/credit cards to make their purchases. Use of the penny will decline because people will see it as next to worthless or not worth carrying around. Mamarazzi (talk) 23:00, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

• The half-dollar may be in a "coma", but it is far from dead. Some time soon, the penny will be gone. When it's time for the nickel to be retired, the US Mint will realize that if the dime is the lowest denomination, the "quarter" will not work, since it is a multiple of 5 cents. Either a smaller 50c piece will have to be minted, or the long-gone 20c piece (yes, in the 1800s) will have to make a comeback. 216.179.123.111 (talk) 20:04, 17 May 2008 (UTC)

I doubt it. It's more likely that the nickel and the dime will be retired at the same time, leaving the quarter as the smallest coin, as with the Danish krone. Nik42 (talk) 03:11, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Quarter is a multiple of 5 cents? Really? Actually all but 1 cent are multiples of 5 cent. Or is twice considered multiple (for 10c)? 82.141.66.232 (talk) 10:09, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

No mention of Half dollars being devalued?

I'm just wondering why there is no mention of the removal of silver from the half dollar?

Surely this is important enough to mention when you consider that our coinage actually used to have some intrinsic value until the federal government decided to make them worthless as bus tokens.

Bo Dollar

I recently heard the half-dollar referred to as a Bo Dollar. I would appreciate any information regarding this reference. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.81.80.134 (talk) 16:24, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

The term bo dollar is a southern term for half dollar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.123.176.155 (talk) 17:02, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Curtis Jackson

How can there be an article on 50 Cent without including the legend himself? Shot 9 times, isn't that enough for you guys?! 92.20.68.186 (talk) 10:16, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Rareness

There reads: Few businesses stock their change drawers with half-dollars, and many banks do not stock these coins or hand them out as normal business practice, so the coins do not see much circulation. and In recent years half dollars have been minted only for collectors, due to large Federal Reserve and government inventories on hand of pre-2001 pieces, this mostly due to lack of demand and large quantity returns from casino slot machines that now operate "coinless". If and when the reserve supply runs low, the mint will again fill orders for circulation half dollars.
So the coins are in federal storage, therefore not in use? 82.141.66.232 (talk) 10:27, 28 January 2012 (UTC)