Dime (United States coin)

Encyclopedia : D : DI : DIM : Dime (United States coin)

A dime is a coin issued by the United States Mint with a denomination of one tenth of a United States dollar, or ten cents.

The name of the coin comes from the French disme (modern French spelling dîme), meaning "tithe" or "tenth part," from the Latin decima [pars]. The original spelling on U.S. coinage was "disme," but the "s" was dropped in the 1800s.

In colloquial language, the word dime usually refers only to the ten-cent coin rather than to the quantity of money; one would not normally call two separate five-cent coins taken together a "dime". The word is not merely colloquial, but also official, and appears on the coin itself.

Dimes are important to the history of coins in that they were the first coins minted as part of the decimal system pioneered by the U.S. monetary system. The dime is the only current U.S. circulating coin whose design contains no reference to "cent" or "dollar". This omission, along with the fact that it is smaller than both the U.S. one-cent and five-cent pieces, often leads to confusion among those unfamiliar with U.S. money.

Contents

1 Designs

1.1 Draped Bust/Capped Bust (1796–1837)
1.2 Seated Liberty (1837–1891)
1.3 Barber (1892–1916)
1.4 Winged Liberty Head (\"Mercury\") (1916–1945)
1.5 Roosevelt (1946–present)

2 Notes and references
3 See also
4 External links

Designs

While now made of sandwich-like clad layers of cupro-nickel (an alloy of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel), dimes were originally made of 89.24 percent silver and 10.76 percent copper, the expense of which required the coins to be very small in order to prevent their intrinsic value being worth more than face value.

Silver dimes
*Draped Bust 1796–1807
*Capped Bust 1809–1837
*Seated Liberty 1837–1891
*Barber 1892–1916
*Mercury 1916–1945
*Roosevelt 1946–1964 (was minted several years after 1964 with date frozen)
**1992–present (since 1992 silver proofs only for collectors struck at the San Francisco Mint)

Copper-nickel dimes
*Roosevelt 1965–present

Draped Bust/Capped Bust (1796–1837)

The Draped Bust/Small Eagle design, minted in 1796 and 1797, was the work of then-Chief Engraver Robert Scot. The portrait of Liberty was based on a Gilbert Stuart drawing of prominent Philadelphia socialite Ann Willing Bingham. All 1796 dimes have 15 stars, while 1797 dimes have either 16 stars (reflecting Tennessee's admission as the 16th state) or 13 stars (for the 13 original states, after the Mint deemed it impractical to continue the practice of adding a new star for each new state).

In 1798, the Heraldic Eagle reverse made its debut. The obverse continued from the previous series, but the eagle on the reverse was changed from the widely criticized "scrawny" hatchling to a scaled-down version of the Great Seal of the United States. Also the work of Robert Scot, this design continued through 1807, though no dimes dated 1799 or 1806 were made.

The Draped Bust design was succeeded by John Reich's Capped Bust, which ran from 1809 to 1828 in the large size and from 1828 to 1837 in the small size. Both obverse and reverse were changed extensively. The Capped Bust design bears the unique distinction of being the only dime ever minted by the United States to bear an explicit indication of its value, with the lettering "10C" appearing on the reverse below the eagle. It also began the longstanding (though not unbroken; notable exceptions include the Barber dime, quarter, and half-dollar as well as the Lincoln cent) U.S. tradition of the obverse portrait facing to the left. Improvements in the striking process allowed the diameter to be reduced (and the thickness correspondingly increased) from approximately 18.8 millimeters to 18.5 millimeters in 1828, though the weight and purity were left unchanged.

Seated Liberty (1837–1891)

For more details on this topic, see United States Seated Liberty coinage.

Christian Gobrecht designed this dime, whose obverse was used with every circulating silver U.S. coin of the period (as was the tradition of the time). The most significant non-design change from the previous series was a reduction in diameter to 17.9 millimeters, a size that has continued to the present day, and a change in composition from .8924 fine silver (the balance made up in copper) to .900 fine silver. This was accompanied by a decrease in mass from 2.70 grams to 2.67 grams to maintain a consistent silver content. Arrows at the date in 1853 and 1873 indicated changes in the coin's mass, initially from 2.67 grams to 2.49 grams to combat rising silver prices, then to 2.50 grams. This latter alteration was brought about by the Mint Act of 1873, which, in an attempt to make U.S. coinage the currency of the world, added a small amount of mass to the dime, quarter, and half-dollar in order to bring their weights in line with fractions of the French 5-franc piece.["1873-74 DIME SEATED LIBERTY WITH ARROWS"]. CoinSite. Retrieved July 13, 2006.

There were several minor variants during the period. The initial design had no stars on the obverse. Thirteen stars (symbolizing the 13 original states) were added to the perimeter of the obverse in 1838. These were replaced with the legend "United States of America" in mid-1860. At the same time, the laurel wreath on the reverse was changed to a wreath of corn, wheat, maple, and oak leaves and expanded nearly to the rim of the coin, since the legend had been moved to the obverse. This design continued through the end of the series in 1891 and was changed only slightly by Barber in 1892.

Barber (1892–1916)

For more details on this topic, see United States Barber coinage.

The Barber dime is so named for its designer, Charles E. Barber, who was Chief Engraver of the Mint at the design's inception. The design was shared with the quarter and half-dollar of the same period. Extensive internal politics surrounded the awarding of the design, which had initially been opened to the public. A four-member committee appointed by then-Mint Director James Kimball, which included Barber himself, accorded only two of more than 300 submissions an honorable mention. Kimball's successor, Edward O. Leech, decided to dispense with the committees and public design competitions and simply instructed Barber to develop a new design. It has been speculated that this is what Barber had intended all along.["1892-1916 DIME BARBER"]. CoinSite. Retrieved July 13, 2006.

Winged Liberty Head (\"Mercury\") (1916–1945)

Obverse of the "Mercury" Dime

Reverse of the "Mercury" Dime

So-called "Mercury" dimes contain no mercury, nor do they depict the Roman messenger god. Adolph A. Weinman, was the designer and a noted sculptor who had studied under Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The obverse figure is a depiction of Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap (typically worn by freed slaves in the Roman Empire), symbolizing freedom of thought. It is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful designs ever to grace a United States coin.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]} The reverse design, a fasces juxtaposed with an olive branch, was intended to symbolize authority, preparedness, and peace.

The composition of the coin is standard for fractional currency of the time, .900 silver and .100 copper. The fasces was a symbol of Roman magistracy and eventually, imperialism. The "Mercury," or more appropriately, "Winged Liberty Head" (the official designation) dime was the last regular issue of U.S. coinage to portray an allegorical obverse design (a phenomenon which from the earliest government issues had been pervasive). It is interesting to note that the fasces was the symbol of fascist Italy, and that movement's name was a derivation of the Roman symbol of power.

The 1916-D issue of only 264,000 coins is one of the most sought after (and expensive) in American numismatics (its rarity due largely to the fact that the overwhelming majority of the dimes struck at Denver in 1916 carried the pre-existing Barber design). Many coins in this series exhibit striking defects, most notably the fact that the line separating the two horizontal bands in the center of the fasces is often missing, in whole or in part; the 1945 issue of the Philadelphia mint hardly ever appears with this line complete from left to right, and as a result, such coins are extremely valuable.

No dimes at all bear the dates of 1922, 1932, or 1933, and the next rarest date after 1916-D is 1921-D. Dimes dated 1923-D and 1930-D are counterfeit. Although neither is particularly rare, the final issue, the 1945-S, has both large and small mint marks. In 1942 dies bearing the previous year's date were reused. The 1942/1 overdate is a scarce coin, and is particularly valuable in the higher grades. Beause of a much weaker "1", for many years the 1942/1-D was not widely known, and in near-uncirculated condition may be rarer than its Philadelphia cousin.

Roosevelt (1946–present)

Soon after the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in April 1945, legislation was introduced by Virginia Congressman Ralph H. Daughton that called for the replacement of the "Mercury" dime with one bearing Roosevelt's image.Yanchunas, Dom. "The Roosevelt Dime at 60." COINage Magazine, February 2006. The dime was chosen to honor Roosevelt, partly, due to his efforts in the founding of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (later renamed the March of Dimes), which originally served to raise money for polio research and to aid victims of the disease and their families.["Conservatives want Reagan to replace FDR on U.S. dimes"]. USA Today. Retrieved July 12, 2006.

Due to the limited amount of time available to design the new coin, the Roosevelt dime was the first regular-issue US coin designed by a Mint employee in more than 50 years. Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock was chosen, as he had already designed a Mint presidential medal of Roosevelt.Yanchunas, Dom. "The Roosevelt Dime at 60." COINage Magazine, February 2006. Sinnock's first design was rejected, but a subsequent one was accepted on January 6, 1946.Hanisco, Raymond F. ["The Roosevelt Dime"]. BellaOnline. Retrieved July 14, 2006

The dime was released to the public on January 30, 1946 which would have been Roosevelt's 64th birthday. Sinnock's design placed his initials (JS) at the base of Roosevelt's neck. Controversy immediately ensued as anti-Communist hysteria led to the circulation of rumors that the "JS" were the initials of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.["Stalin for Dime"]. Snopes. Retrieved July 12, 2006. The Mint quickly issued a statement refuting this, and confirming that the initials were Sinnock's.Hanisco, Raymond F. ["The Roosevelt Dime"]. BellaOnline. Retrieved July 14, 2006 The reverse design of a torch, olive branch, and oak branch is intended to symbolize, respectively, liberty, peace, strength, and independence.

As with the quarter and half-dollar, 1964 was the last year of traditional .900 fine silver coinage. Beginning in 1965, the dime assumed its current composition, a "sandwich" of copper between two layers of an alloy of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. This composition was selected because it gave similar mass (now 2.27 grams, the ratio to the old size is the same as the ratio of 2 lb to 1 kg, or of a short ton to a metric tonne) and electrical properties (important in vending machines), and most importantly, because it contained no precious metal.

Soon after the change of composition, silver dimes (and quarters and half dollars) began to disappear from circulation, as people receiving them in change hoarded them. This was a good example of Gresham's Law in action. Although now very rare, silver dimes are still occasionally encountered in change. Their relative thinness and the growing population of people who have no idea of the reason for their unique appearance allow a dwindling, but still surviving, supply of the coins to remain in circulation.

Notes and references

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.