US Quarter and half Dollar coins

Started by gpimper, August 11, 2020, 05:25:13 PM

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brandm24

Quote from: idiotghost on August 18, 2020, 10:14:01 AM
I was lucky enough to find 4 Kennedy Half dollars while paying entry fee at Lava tube in Kauai in Hawaii last year. 1973, 1999, 2000 & another 2000. The coins looked pretty neat & in good shape.
You were lucky, I never see Kennedys in circulation. I see small dollar coins sometimes, but not often. Neither series ever circulated to any extent. The half dollars are too bulky and the public would rather use paper currency in place of a coin.

Bruce
Always Faithful

Figleaf

Decades ago, I was travelling around (by Greyhound bus) and found myself in Reno. The casinos there had machines working on halves and the cashier would gladly change your bills for Kennedy halves. Oddly, you could use dollar bills in the machines requiring a dollar input.

On later visits, I used the ticket machines in the hall of Grand Central station to get halves and Eisenhower dollars. The machines accepted all (?) bills but gave change in coins only. When I'd need a ticket to visit family in the outskirts of New York city, I'd feed the machine the highest denominated bill I had and out came the coins.

On one visit, I'd taken along my son. A vendor was making cookies in the hall of the station. The aroma got the boy's stomach rumbling. While I was going about my business, he was scurrying around the hall and when I wanted to leave, he showed me nine 1 cent coins he'd found in minutes only, asked for a cookie and pointed to the sign that priced them at 49 or 99 or something cents. He'd made sure I couldn't refuse due to lack of change. :)

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

brandm24

A controversy arose early over the design of the Standing Liberty Quarter first introduced in 1916. The newly redesigned quarter dollar wasn't distributed until late in the year due to problems switching from the old Barber coins. As a result, only 52,000 were struck so the controversy didn't bubble up until early in 1917 after the public had more exposure to the new series.

Hermon A. MacNeil the designer had left the right breast of the allegorical figure of Liberty exposed. There was a public outcry over it so the mint had MacNeil redesign it. Instead of Liberty being dressed in a tunic he clothed her in chain mail that effectively quieted the critics. At the same time he made a small change to the reverse by adding three stars under the eagle which raised it up in the design.

Bruce
Always Faithful

brandm24

Quote from: Figleaf on August 19, 2020, 11:35:21 AM
Decades ago, I was travelling around (by Greyhound bus) and found myself in Reno. The casinos there had machines working on halves and the cashier would gladly change your bills for Kennedy halves. Oddly, you could use dollar bills in the machines requiring a dollar input.

On later visits, I used the ticket machines in the hall of Grand Central station to get halves and Eisenhower dollars. The machines accepted all (?) bills but gave change in coins only. When I'd need a ticket to visit family in the outskirts of New York city, I'd feed the machine the highest denominated bill I had and out came the coins.

On one visit, I'd taken along my son. A vendor was making cookies in the hall of the station. The aroma got the boy's stomach rumbling. While I was going about my business, he was scurrying around the hall and when I wanted to leave, he showed me nine 1 cent coins he'd found in minutes only, asked for a cookie and pointed to the sign that priced them at 49 or 99 or something cents. He'd made sure I couldn't refuse due to lack of change. :)

Peter
The government is the one who makes the effort to see that the half dollar and small dollar coins are distributed. You get them in post offices, in change at railway stations (as you did), in some vending machines, etc. We have a high speed rail line here that runs from South Jersey into Philadelphia and another called the River Line that provides service to the river towns in south and central New Jersey. Both have ticket vending that does what you experienced, provides change in dollar coins. There efforts have pretty much been in vain though, as these coins just don't circulate to any degree.

You should have been proud of your son for figuring out how he could get you to buy him a cookie. Probably irritating at the time, but you must have had a chuckle when he wasn't looking. :)

Bruce
Always Faithful

Figleaf

It wasn't irritating at all. I was proud of him being a real Dutch cheapskate, praised him for his ingenuity, got him the cookie, bought two bags full of cookies to take home (it was our last day) and promptly forgot them in the airplane as I thought they'd crumble in the luggage. I feel responsible for one fat stewardess :)

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

brandm24

Oh, how do you live with the shame, Peter? Not for the fat stewardess but for leaving the cookies on the plane. ;D

Bruce
Always Faithful

Figleaf

It is hard, but the alternative to life is not appealing either ;)

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.