What is a half dime?

Answer 1

A half dime is an obsolete US coin worth 5 cents. It was very small, about 14 mm in diameter, and made of silver. It served the same purpose as modern nickels.

Half dimes were minted from 1794 to 1873. The denomination was chosen at a time when US coinage was based on multiples of 10 rather than 100, with denominations of cent, dime, dollar, and eagle, each being worth 10 times the next smaller amount. To simplify change-making, "half" denominations were also issued - half cent, half dime, half dollar, and half eagle - hence the half dime.

Initially there were proposals to write prices using all of the primary denominations, so for example a price of 3.5.2.7 would be 3 eagles, 5 dollars, 2 dimes, and 7 cents. But while this cumbersome system was quickly replaced with our familiar use of just dollars and cents, the name "dime" persists till today.

The modern nickel was introduced in 1866 and proved to be much more convenient to use than the tiny half-dime. The two coins coexisted until the coinage reform of 1873 which eliminated the now relatively unpopular half-dime in favor of the larger nickel.

The quarter was the one unusual denomination because it didn't fit into a 10-based scheme. It was created because the US dollar co-circulated with Spanish milled dollars during the country's early years, and those coins were divided into quarters and eighths rather than tenths. Even though a 20-cent coin would have been more in keeping with a decimal system, by the time Spanish dollars were removed from circulation in 1857 the quarter was firmly established.