The US dime, a ten-cent coin, was traditionally composed of 90% silver and 10% copper. This composition lent the coin intrinsic worth past its face worth. Nonetheless, rising silver costs made it economically unsustainable to proceed minting dimes with this valuable metallic content material. The query facilities on the exact time when this silver composition was discontinued in favor of a inexpensive different.
The shift away from silver coinage was pushed primarily by financial elements. By the mid-Nineteen Sixties, the worth of the silver in dimes, quarters, and half-dollars was approaching, and typically exceeding, the cash’ face worth. Retaining silver in circulating coinage would have necessitated both a major enhance within the face worth of the cash or risked mass melting for his or her silver content material, disrupting the nation’s financial system. Discontinuing the silver content material offered a cheap resolution to take care of the performance of the dime.
