People still don't know why a Dime is smaller than a Nickel.

One of my colleagues, with a PhD in Toxicology couldn't answer her son's question as to why a Dime is smaller than the 5 Cent piece we call a nickel. So one of her co-workers brought in a silver Dime and Quarter Dollar to show her and explain that we used to have money, not tokens.
She had no idea. We told her all about LBJ and how he said the new clad coins would be worth just as much as the 90% silver they removed.
Right up there with the "temporary" removal of the gold standard and being able to keep your doctor.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

What ?

 

All these years and now my dreams have been shattered.

 

Aw, shucks! I hoarded 18,000 Westward Journey nickels because I hoped that nickel would become a precious metal that would break $1,200/oz.

Chris

 

well, Chris, the good news is that they're 75% copper!!

 

why didn't you just answer the question and tell her why the nickel is larger? (and it has nothing to do with LBJ)

 

But, copper ain't worth squat, and since it is an alloy mix, the copper is only worth about 25% of the Grade A price.

Chris

 

Short version: a dime is smaller than a nickel because of the silver content that used to be in them. Nickels weren't minted until 1866 but Dimes were first minted starting in 1794.

It all has to do with the metal content, the history of coinage in the beginning days of the US, trade and commerce at that time and the civil war, which changed coinage immediately after the war. This is the short version and hopefully it will suffice to answer that young man's question.

 

I did. And it did have something with LBJ - he took the silver out so that the nickel became more valuable than the dime. There was a reason before him.

 

I know why, and was able to explain it with many fewer words. I also explained that therewas a Half Dime, minted from 1792 to 1873.
Does that help you?

 

The funny thing is that it currently costs over 8¢ to make each nickel, but we continue to do so when creating a clad half dime (smaller than a dime) would likely remedy the problem and make our coins make more sense

 

clad half dime smaller than a current dime? That would be so small!!

 

well, it's not worth very much, so that makes perfect sense to me

 

At the time the Mint stopped making half cents, their purchasing power was equal to about 14 cents today. The purchasing power of a cent (small or large) was more than today's quarter.

WHY ON EARTH should we reform the size, shape, color or taste of coins worth less than the time it takes the cashier to count them out?

Discontinue EVERYTHING with a face value less than 25 cents. Make coins worth 25 cents, a dollar, $5, and $20. Throw in a $10 coin if you want full employment for all those slots in the cash register.

Stop pretending "a whole dollar" is a major unit of value. That ship sailed during my childhood.

 

I'm not the one that needed the help.

 

Hey, "a nickel ain't worth a dime anymore".
-Yogi Berra

 

lol I still pick up ANY coin I see on the ground!

 

I remember a Cartoon version of The Little Rascals where one boy was trying to convince another to take a Nickel rather than the Dime because it was bigger.. He was trying to fool him into thinking it was worth more because it was larger

 

As you get older, the ground gets further away, and the round-trip takes longer.

 

The better news is that they are 25% nickel. The nickel content is worth more than the copper content.

And instead add the problem of trying to handle the clad half dimes. Difficult to handle or pick up, and easy to lose. The larger size of the nickel five cent piece was one of the reasons it became so successful, it was SO much easier to handle.