Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index A coin minted by the United States with a denomination of ten cents. 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". Although perhaps most Americans fail to realize it, the word is not only colloquial but official, and appears on the coin itself. The coins in the USA and Canada are similar to each other, and are physically the smallest coins currently produced by either country. While now made of sandwich-like clad layers nickel and copper, dimes were originally made of 90% silver and 10% copper, the expense of which required the coins to be small enough to prevent melt value being worth more than face value. Dimes are important to the history of coins in that they were the first coins minted as part of the decimal system that was invented at the inception of the US monetary system. The design and even the size of the dime has changed over the centuries. The larger sized dimes (which were also a little thinner than today's version) were minted from 1796-1828. Designs include: Draped Bust, Small Eagle 1796-1797 Draped Bust, Heraldic Eagle 1798-1807 Capped Bust (Large) 1809-1828 Capped Bust (Small) 1828-1837 Seated Liberty (various subtypes) 1837- 1891 Barber 1892-1916 Mercury 1916-1945 Roosevelt (Silver) 1946-1964 Roosevelt (Clad) 1965-present The modern dime bears Roosevelt's image partly in commemoration of his efforts for the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio from which Roosevelt suffered. [1] This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.