Well it’s, turn and face the stars and stripes
It’s fightin’ back them butterflies
It’s call it in the air alright yes sir we want the ball
And it’s knockin’ heads and talkin’ trash
It’s slingin’ mud and dirt and grass
It’s I got your number, I got your back
When your back’s against the wall
You mess with one man, you got us all
The boys of fall
Those lyrics belted out by Kenny Chesney always make you get worked up for football season. Like many others in Texas, football season is one of my favorite times of the year. For me it means spending five or six Saturdays at Darrell K Royal – Texas Memorial Stadium (DKR) on the campus of The University of Texas – Austin watching my Longhorns. It also means the chance to catch a sighting of something you don’t see on a daily basis – the Kennedy Half Dollar.
Pretty much every item you can purchase at a concession stand at DKR is priced at an even dollar amount or a half dollar amount. So your overpriced watered-down drink is either $5.00 or $6.50 and the day old popcorn is $4.00 or $5.50. That being the case, when your total purchase ends in .50, the change you get back is in the form of the rarely used Kennedy Half Dollar – the good ole fifty-cent piece. I am not sure why, other than I guess someone thinks it’s easier to hand back one coin instead of two quarters.
After the first two games this season, I had accumulated three of these coin oddities. For some reason this year, unlike the past 20 years I have been attending games, I started wondering why the half dollar had all but disappeared from our daily lives. We all still use the pesky penny, but rarely do you see someone throw down a fifty-cent piece.
Well it turns out that the disappearance of the half-dollar was the result of two things that were happening in 1964 and 1965. The first was the decision to honor JFK by placing his likeness on the half-dollar soon after his assassination. The second was the increase in the price of silver in the mid-1960s. In 1964-65 there were more than 430 million Kennedy half-dollars minted – all with a silver content of 90%. These coins quickly became a collectors items by those wanting to have something that honored JFK – people got the coins and stuck them in boxes, drawers, etc. In addition silver prices at the time were nearing $1.30 a troy ounce. A half-dollar contained approx .35 troy ounces of silver which meant the silver value in the coin was approaching the face value of the coin. This resulted in silver speculators hoarding half-dollars as well. This all added up to the half-dollar disappearing from circulation over that two year period.
In late 1965, the silver content of half-dollars was lowered to 40% and in 1971 the silver content was removed altogether. This stopped the silver speculators from hoarding half-dollars but the damage was done. People had stopped using the half-dollar on a daily basis and new coin production volumes declined dramatically.
So enough of coin history. With three of these coins in my possession I decided it was time to circulate the coins. I did this only after making sure that none of them were minted before 1971 – as a 1964 version would be worth around $12 and a 1965-1970 version would be worth around $5 at current silver prices. They were all post-1971 so I set my sights on spending all three of them. I wanted to see how people reacted to them and maybe just start a retro trend.
First up, we had to send a couple of digital files off for printing those old school photographs. The total came to $0.42 at the local Walgreens. A perfect amount for throwing down a fifty-cent piece. We ordered the prints online and I headed to the store to pick them up. I somewhat nervously placed my half-dollar on the counter, not sure what to expect. The cashier just took and gave me back my $.08 in change. Mission accomplished and one half-dollar temporarily in circulation.
Next up, a trip through the drive-thru at Starbucks. My daughter’s caramel mocha frap rang up at $4.22. I whipped out four ones and a trusty fifty-cent piece. The cashier at the window proceeded to give $0.78 back. What seemed like five minutes later and cars now backing up onto then main road, I successfully explained to her that I only gave her $4.50. Another JFK in circulation, albeit with some confusion.
The final spot, the local Cinemark movie theatre. A trip to concession stand for popcorn and some drinks came to $17.50 – another chance to use the half-dollar. I quickly slid a $20 bill and a fifty-cent piece across the counter. The fifty-cent went flying and clanged to the floor. But the cashier picked it up and he knew what it was. He even commented on not seeing one very often. My third JFK made it into the real world.
I wouldn’t be surprised if all three coins went straight back to the bank, but maybe one of them is still floating around out there changing hands like a normal coin. I have a few more half-dollars left to spend and I fully expect to spend them – no more hoarding for me. In fact I might go get a roll of them and try starting a renaissance of fifty-cent piece usage.
Robert Not Bob 