CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE: HALF DOLLARS, SILVER DOLLARS FOR HOARDING, NOT SPENDING

The other day a co-worker wanted to trade two half dollars for a whole one.

I said no, primarily because I didn't have a dollar bill. The other reason is, I can't spend half dollars or Eisenhower silver dollars, and I don't like taking money I can't spend.

Can't do it.

They are legal tender, I realize, but half dollars and silver dollars are not for spending. They are for hoarding.

They are to be tucked away in a drawer or a jar or (more sensibly) a safety deposit box and kept out of circulation until the car breaks down or the roof collapses or some catastrophe requiring large amounts of cash occurs.

At least, that's how things worked in my family. Mom and Pop always bought savings bonds and all half dollars and silver dollars were squirreled away for future use.

One of my mother's jewelry boxes had entire drawers stuffed full of half dollars.

Maybe they were worried the banking system would collapse, and they'd need honest-to-God precious metals to barter with.

Maybe it was a remnant of my father's childhood during the Depression when banks were not to be trusted.

The other remnant is stirring the last few bites of every meal together on his plate and then consuming the conglomeration, but we won't talk about that now.

Finances were unique at our house.

My parents didn't have a checking account when I was a kid. They used the envelope system.

Pop brought home his pay check, and Mom took an assortment of dollar bills and tucked them away in different envelopes marked "gas," "water," "phone," "electric" and, most importantly, "house."

It worked. All the bills were paid in full and on time, and the mortgage was paid off early.

And that paid-off house was stacked to the rafters with half dollars and silver dollars.

I'm still not sure why we saved them (President Kennedy's picture is on them? Mom had a secret crush on Dwight D. Eisenhower?), but save them we did. By the dozen, in drawers and boxes and empty Ovaltine jars.

The silver dollars and half dollars aren't there anymore. I'm not sure if they finally got spent or taken to the bank or Pop broke down and just buried them in the backyard.

The upshot is, there is some U.S. currency I am actually incapable of spending.

Of course, currency is not actually required for me to spend. Sometimes money isn't either.

I don't know why, but spending a half dollar or Eisenhower dollar strikes me as some kind of sacrilege. Possibly a minor form of unpatriotic behavior, only slightly less disrespectful than not standing for the national anthem.

Now, of course, there are the Susan B. Anthony dollars, which don't look like real money. Or as one sales clerk put it, "When'd they put a woman on the quarter?"

Maybe I'll just write a check.

Peggy O'Farrell is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.