When was the dime introduced into US currency?
Coins have many uses. People save them or spend them. Some people collect coins for fun or for profit. Others “toss a coin” to make a decision or use coins in magic tricks. Children use coins in tabletop games such as “penny hockey.” Sometimes coins are used in jewelry or as adornment on clothes.
In the United States, six coins are currently in circulation. Each coin has a different denomination, or value. The six coins are the one-cent coin, the five-cent coin, the ten-cent coin, the 25-cent coin, the 50-cent coin (half dollar) and 100-cent (dollar) coin. Americans usually refer to their coins by names rather than by values. A one-cent coin is called a penny; it is a copper-colored coin. A five-cent coin is called a nickel, a ten-cent coin is a dime, and a 25-cent coin is a quarter. Nickels, dimes, and quarters are silver colored. Americans use these four coins regularly in their transactions, as customers making purchases and as shopkeepers giving change.
The lack of available coins in the American colonies eventually prompted colonies to start producing their own money. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was the first colony to make its own coins. The most famous of these were the pine-tree shilling and the oak-tree shilling, both of which featured images of trees. All of the coins the Massachusetts Bay Colony produced was dated 1652, regardless of when they were made. It is believed that this was done because British law stated that only the monarch could issue coins, and there was no monarch in England in 1652.
The U.S. Mint has been in continuous operation since 1792. It makes all U.S. coins, those used regularly in commerce (circulating), those intended primarily for investors and collectors (un-circulating), and those created to honor important people or events (commemorative). Initially the Mint was part of the U.S. Department of State. Then, in 1873, the Mint became part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It remains there, directly under the auspices of the Treasurer of the United States. Back in 1792, Congress authorized the Mint to produce ten coins: eagles ($10.00), half eagles ($5.00), quarter eagles ($2.50), dollars ($1.00), half dollars, quarter dollars, dimes, half dimes, cents, and half cents. Eagles were made of gold, and the cent and half cent were copper. Silver was used for all the other coins. It is believed that U.S. President George Washington actually gave the Mint some of his own silver to use in making early coins.
The dime is the ten-cent coin, which features Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was the longest serving U.S. president. His image appeared on the coin in 1946, approximately a year after his death, in part to honor his efforts to aid victims of polio, a disease Roosevelt himself had contracted. The back of the dime features a design made up of a torch, an olive branch, and an oak branch. These elements symbolize, respectively, liberty, peace, and victory.