Early Half Dime Gems

When we think of the “nickel” today everyone knows what is meant—the copper-nickel five-cent piece. The average citizen today probably thinks that it has been struck since the beginning of the Republic but this is not the case. Yet there was a five-cent piece first made in the 1790s. It was of silver and called a half dime. The story of this little coin, which was the forerunner of our modern-day nickel, began not long after the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783. The Confederation government’s finance minister had drawn up plans for a national coinage and even was able to have a few pattern coins struck. The plan proved unworkable due to its complexity but came to the attention of Thomas Jefferson, then a Confederation congressman.
In 1784 and 1785 Jefferson, who had a strong interest in creating a national system of coinage, prepared some detailed essays discussing the problems and his proposed solutions. Among other points, Jefferson stated that:

“A great deal of small change is useful in a State, and tends to reduce the prices of small articles, Perhaps, it would not be amiss to coin two more pieces of silver, one of the value of two-tenths, which would be equal to the Spanish pistareen, and one of the value of five coppers, which would be equal to the Spanish half bit. We should then have four silver coins, viz:

“1. The unit, or dollar. “2. The double tenth [20 cents], equal to 2 [bits] or 1-5th of a dollar or to the pistareen. “3. The tenth [10 cents], equal to a Spanish bit. “4. The five copper piece [5 cents], equal to .05 or 1-20th of a dollar, or to the half bit.”

The ideas that Jefferson proposed look familiar to modern eyes, except of course the 20-cent piece, which was not struck until 1875 and proved to be the Anthony dollar of its day. The dime and half dime are easily recognizable as the last two coins on the list.

Full Article >>>