Why is the dime smaller than the Five Cent and the One Cent?

LALASD4

Why is the dime smaller than the Five Cent and the One Cent?

nwcs

Because when they were first out, the silver it would take to make a 10 cent coin was much less than the cost of copper to make the original cent. Originally the five cent was a half disme and had enough silver for 5 cents. Later, as copper increased in price, various alloys were used to reduce the size and cost. Nickel-Copper alloy was used to make the 5 cent coin mainly because of a nickel mine owner who got it through congress. The amount of nickel-copper alloy to make 5 cents was larger than the amount of silver to make 10 cents. Same for the 1 cent coin vs. the 10 cent coin.

LALASD4

I think the half dime was silver also, wonder why they did not made the Five Cent in silver also? maybe it would be too small?

nwcs

The half dime was silver. The 5 cent coin made out of nickel replaced the half dime. Also, at the time silver costs were increasing. But the nickel mine owners also helped sway congress in choosing a direction.

dorkkarl

a 1c coin in silver would have been unmanageable tiny, as the 3c silvers proved. (just a guess)

K S

LALASD4

Its all politics I guess, it seems like coins from other countries goes down in size with demo., except for the ones with silver and gol.

BillJones

The original dime was made of silver and therefore had to be smaller so that it would not be melted for its metal content. Even so the weight of all silver coins had be reduced in 1853 when the discovery of massive amounts of gold in California changed the price ratio between the two metals.

In 1965 all of the silver was removed from the dime. That was done because there was an opinion, which turned out to come true, that the price of silver would eventually exceed $1.29 an ounce. At that point the silver content of the dime equaled its melt value. The new dime was made the same size as the old one despite the change in the alloy. By then token coinage (coins that frankly did not contain their face value in metal) had been accepted by the general public.

The half dime was made of 90% silver just as the dime was. In 1866 the government began to issue the nickel five cent piece. The nickel was introduced for two reasons. First, as others have written, there was a nickel lobby led by Joseph Warton that helped to push the legislation through Congress. Second, precious metal coins had been hoarded during the Civil War. It hoped that a base metal coin would not be hoarded and that it would remain in circulation and to relieve the coin shortage. After the nickel reached circulation, people found it easier to use than the tiny half dime, and in 1873 the half dime was dropped from mint production.

BTW there was a proposal for a copper ten cent piece in the late 1860s. Pattern copper ten cent coins were made. They were the size of the old large cents, and in fact the large cent design was used for the obverse. The mint also made a few 1868 large cents, which are now pattern curiosities.