United States Half Dimes – A Short History Lesson

The United States half dime is a very interesting little coin, both in historical significance and beauty. The half dimes of 1792 were the first authorized coins issued by the new United States Government and were said to be struck from silver spoons supplied by Martha Washington. Only about 1500 pieces were struck in 1792 with regular production up to over 86,000, starting in 1794. For the next 80 years it was the smallest United States standard silver coin ever struck at the United States Mints, both in a standpoint of size and weight.

The flowing hair and draped bust design of 1794 to 1805 half dimes weighed in at just 1.35 grams, composition was .8924 silver and it had a diameter of 16.5mm. The U.S. Mint took some time off making half dimes starting in 1806 and production would not resume until the Capped Bust series of 1829 to 1837. By 1837 and 1838 all the silver U.S. coinage changed to the beautiful Liberty Seated or Seated Liberty series. The half dime in this series composition changed to .900 silver.

So just where did the half dime acquire its name? In 1785 the decimal coinage system was adopted by the new Congress and it was then that the half dime technically first came to light. Although, in the dawn of our coinage history it was first known as a half bit, disme and later changed to half dime.

The name disme, meaning tenth in English numeral terminology, was selected by the first Board of the Treasury. The letter "S" was later dropped from disme probably in favor of the shorter word dime which from all records seems to be strictly an American word coined for our monetary system's use. What ever its true background may be, it appeared on all one tenth and one twentieth dollar coins from 1837 to date. Prior to 1829 no mark as to the coin's value appeared on the half dime and from 1829 to 1837 a 5 c appeared on all half dimes. The half dime series ceased production in 1873. So what took it's place? The production of the Shield Nickel five cent pieces starting in 1866, Liberty Head Nickel in 1883, the Buffalo Nickel in 1913 and the Jefferson Nickel still in use today.