Sorry, scratch “Before 1965 they are 90% silver (like dimes and quarters), and from 1965 until 1970 they were 50% silver.”
They were 40% silver, not 50%. Don’t mean to pick nits.
um, no.
the color is the color of the metal…it doesn’t rub off easily, it tarnishes easily. when i got the rolls from my bank, as stated above, i’d keep them as a roll in my pocket, and gradually tear end of the paper roll to get a coin as needed. by the time the roll was finished, the exposed coin’s face out side was tarnished: in fact, you could see my fingerprints on it. that’s why a lot of dealers are selling them above face value: any coin that anyone’s touched will probably be tarnished a day or two after being touched.
Thank you for pointing out the SD column manhattan! I forgot about that one. But when Cecil says «today they can usually be obtained at banks, although it may take some asking around» I think the second half of the clause is the more accurate part.
“Are you sure? The sackie was specifically designed to work in the same machines as the Suzies.”
I remember reading that at the Mint’s “golden dollar” FAQ. But I also have to second Markxxx on the CTA’s dispensing but not accepting sackies. I distinctly remember the last time I filled my Transit Card (at Rosemont station, IIRC), all the Transit Card Machines had notes taped to them stating that they could not accept $1 coins. Maybe CTA has modified the TCMs to accept sackies since then; I haven’t paid attention.
Loonies (dollar coins with a loon pictured on them) have been available in Canada for more than ten years. I think they make life a lot easier when it comes to vending machines and doing laundry at my apartment. The gold finish does not come off our coins and I don’t really understand the onjections of some Americans about them. Most of my relatives are English and while it is their nature to complain a lot, they seem to find the Pound coins handy.
The Canadian government, thinking it was on to a good thing, then came out with a larger coin with some guys canoeing on it. The “Toonie” (which won over worthy competitiors like “doubloonie” for the commonly used name) is accepted by most vending machines now, but is a little less handy. The toonie is multi-coloured with a silver centre and a gold rim. Loonies are useful and are quickly recirculated or reserved for laundry and snack food needs. Toonies accumulate in coat pockets and wallets and I think most Canadians are familiar with having far too much change.
There have been some good jokes about higher value coins, along the lines of five dollar coins the size of a dinner plate made of six kinds of metal, but you get the drift.
I do get a roll of Sackies (25) every time I go to the bank. I spend them just like I would regular dollar bills. I am amazed at how many cashier-types have never seen one.
I have never had anyone mistake one for a quarter though! They are gold and have a girl on them. They don’t look anything like a quarter. I just don’t understand that.
They do tarnish very quickly and I find that disappointing.
Having a pocket full of Sackies makes me feel like a pirate. 
Well, I got my sackies! Intentionally put a $10 bill in the stamp machine, and got a nice collection of shiny sackies. Now it shall be my quest to always get my dollars from the post office and spread the circulation of these beauties!
What the freak. I just went over and bought a stamp from the machine. Got 19 sackies all at once, and it was like winning a jackpot. Now that I’m stocked up again, I’ll have to get rid of them! 
VEGAS BABY!!! The 50 cent slot machines. I saw millions of them when I was there. Ok not millions, but bucketfuls. Same thing with the dollar coins. There were lots of Susan B. coins, and when I go back next year I’m hoping to see those dollar machines spit out Sackies for my enjoyment. Some casinos have their own dollar coin, by the way, but they ALL use the Kennedy half-dollar.
And why would you be carrying nine of them? We’d still have fives, so hypothetically speaking you’d be carrying one five dollar bill and four dollar coins.
You always hear people say they don’t like to carry coins,
but am I the only one objects to wads of $1 notes bulking up
my wallet, to the point where it’s even hard to fold? Sometimes I have wads of paper money, i.e. singles, and it isn’t even enough to order a pizza.
Get with it people, a dollar doesn’t even get you on the bus
in most large cities. That we still print paper money in such a small denomination ill beseems the dignity of a great industrial nation. It’s pathetic!
I typically carry $5-$10 in sackies in the watch pocket of my jeans–I get a roll or two every time I go to the credit union. I’ve never heard them jangle, or found the additional weight at all noticeable. I’ve never lost one from my pocket either–perhaps I don’t slouch enough for that to be a problem?
Everyone around here seems to find them fascinating; unfortunately, that means that clerks “buy” them out of the change drawer to take home and keep. I keep hoping that if I spend enough of them in my regular haunts, the clerks will get used to them and start spending them and giving them in change themselves. I also find them very convenient for vending machines (except for those obnoxious examples that won’t take any coin larger than a quarter).
c_goat, I’m going to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks, so maybe I’ll try your method. But do you only get the 50¢ coins when you win, or can you get them from the change person? If I have to wait to win from a slot machine to get the coins, I’m in for long hours. I don’t have a good “slot machine strategy”. 
Since the half-dollar slots take half-dollars, you should be able to get them from the cashier. You’r enot going to hoard them, are you? 
Actually, if you mean the composition of the metal is homogeneous, it is not. It’s manganese brass over a copper core; though I’m sure you’re right when you say that Markxxx is seeing the tarnish, not the wear.
Oh, and samclem, thanks for the correction about the silver content of halves.
Of course you can get rolls of them from the change people. You can also put a $20 in a slot machine and hit the cash out button and all the coins will drop into the slot and you’ll feel like you won.
Thanks Johnny and c_goat. I’ll be coming home from Vegas with Jack Kennedy filling my pockets!
I’ll hoard a few, that’s what us numismatists do, but the rest will be used to plague store clerks throughout the land. Mwahahahaha.