Thanks to ALL for their thoughts, comments and questions!
KT started in late February of 2012 so it was not a full year, but the rest are full year totals. KT went back and looked at the total coins searched, which now comes for those years inclusive, to 1,526,944. One would expect a round number buying boxes, but there have been shortages, in 2016 one box had 4 complete rolls missing and in 2017 another box was 1 roll short.


No wonder KT's back sometimes hurts, hauling all those heavy boxes from the Royal Bank, and all the waste halves to the dump bank!

As for why the 90% Halves are on the rise....KT knows enough about statistics that He just does not have enough years of searching to draw a valid conclusion. It might be that since the general public is getting further and further away from knowledge about silver coinage, that they are, in general, lacking any concern about it. However, it may also be that many of our older silver hoarders are passing...remember it has been over 50 years since silver coinage was converted to clad. Most folks born after 1965 have never seen circulating silver coins, so they do not seriously think about it. KT was born in 1949 and although a coin collector in His youth, was never interested in silver coinage, He only collected pennies and nickels....


, but when the great rise in silver value occurred, He recognized the error of His Royal Ways!
Now His Majesty has listed a couple of reasons He thinks may be responsible, but are they correct???

There are just so many other possible factors, and KT also knows there are many who search their change for silver coinage, but how often do they get any halves in their change?? Halves are now unpopular amongst the masses, they are heavy....with so many sticking only to plastic, and not carrying money, including change, it is not surprising to see silver dumped by change hoarders and by relatives of those folks who were around in the late 1960 who pulled so much silver from circulation....those that did not cash it in when it was 20 times face value at the coin shows....those folks are old now, and although they know that silver has value, they appear to fail to pass that info on to their relatives.
KT cannot envision that in 25 years the US Mint will still be making halves, even for collectors. Seems there will an end to it....we celebrated the 50th year of the Ken halves in 2014 with an issue of 90% silver proofs...how many even purchased them is unknown, but KT grabbed some at the time, just to go with the other Kens He has kept. When halves end, then we will begin to see the rise of collector's value of common silver halves. Until then, KT just keeps track of the melt values and does not worry about how high they might actually go.
Do not kid yourself about KT, though. If tomorrow the US Mint announced that 2018 was the last run of halves they would mint, except in Proof and Proof Silver Sets, KT would watch carefully for the rise of silver half values and would eventually sell what He had of collector value for cash....KT does not figure that will occur in His own Royal Lifetime, though, so He has educated Prince John that such may happen in the future and to hold on to all KT has gathered until that time. KT has also instructed Prince John in how to get on and sell the halves on this forum, so that fellow collectors might benefit from what KT has gathered together!