The other day I was pontificating on why the dime is the only U.S. minted coin that is smaller than the nickle and penny. I first thought that it was not right for the dime to be disrespected. However, after research I read that the original dime (minted in the 1790′s) represented 10% pure metal of the silver dollar. Hence it’s size. Of course that has now changed since the U.S. mint no longer uses pure metal content (BTW I heard it takes two cents to make one. Umm, could this be the main cause of our deficit????)

Here is an excerpt from the US Mint site: Today, the sizes of United States coins can help you to tell them apart quickly, but have nothing to do with their values. Precious metal prices constantly fluctuate, so the values of circulating coins are no longer tied to metallic content. But back in 1793, when the first U.S. coins were produced, the U.S. Mint did link the sizes of coins, by the weight of their silver content, to that particular metals standard at the time the silver dollar.
Except for the coppers Cent Half-Cent, two-cent etc. all coins were produced in proportionate metallic content to the dollar, and their sizes were regulated accordingly. The fifty-cent coin contained one-half as much silver as the dollar, the quarter had one-fourth as much, and the dime or ten-cent coin had one-tenth as much.
The five-cent coin, or half-dime as it was called then, had only one-twentieth the silver that the dollar coin had. But it was so small that it was difficult for people to handle. So in 1866, Mint officials decided to make it larger by changing its content from silver and copper to a combination of 75% copper and 25% nickel and the modern nickel was born.

Now if you find this post interesting, look for my next post to find out why the nickle is larger than the dime and penny…