What is a coin described as a half disme?

Answer 1

The half disme was an early US 5 cent coin. The word disme (pronounced 'deem' or very occasionally 'dizmeh') comes from the French dixième, meaning 'one tenth'.

By the time the first official coinage system was established 'disme' had already been shortened to the familiar 'dime', so the 5-cent coin was called a half-dime.

While half-dimes may seem strange today they were an integral part of early US coinage. Nickel wasn't a viable metal for making coins because it's very hard and quickly broke the dies used in early coin presses. Copper was used for cents and half-cents (and later, 2-cent pieces), coins from 5 cents to $1 were made of silver, and anything above that was gold. There were to be several basic denominations, each worth 10 times the next smaller; within each denomination there would be a one-unit and a half-unit coin:

• 10 mills = 1 cent; coins = half cents and cents
• 10 cents = 1 dime; half-dimes and dimes
• 10 dimes = 1 dollar; half-dollars and dollars
• 10 dollars = 1 eagle; half-eagles and eagles
• 10 eagles = 1 union; half-unions and unions

The somewhat cumbersome system quickly simplified itself in daily use. Mills, half-unions, and unions were never minted, and very soon prices were expressed simply in dollars and cents.

In the 1850s Metallurgy had advanced to the point where nickel was becoming practical for coinage. Small 3¢ coins were first made of nickel, and in 1866 the first 5¢ nickel coins were introduced. The new coins were very popular but half-dimes remained part of American coinage system till 1873, when enough "nickels" were in circulation that the denomination could be discontinued.