The 1969d half-dollar is thus far (2015) the last American silver coin produced for circulation. (The other denominations had already lost their silver and the silver-clad Kennedy halves of 1970 were coined exclusively for sets; subsequent silver issues have also been collector-coins only.)
Only Denver struck half-dollars for circulation in 1969 (the obverse mintmark was another recent departure from American numismatic tradition), and these final American circulating silver coins mark the end of a silver coinage that began when the name “United States of America” was a literal fact.
By the time this 1969d half-dollar fell from a coining press, however, almost all of North and South America had gained independent statehood and the age of colonialism was long since dead.
So it’s no surprise that 1969 is a year almost never remembered for a great colonial opportunity foregone—not in silver, but in stainless steel—the plaque attached to the leg of the Apollo 11 lunar-lander: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot on the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.” President Kennedy's 1961 pledge redeemed.
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