WHEN WE count our change today we think little of the origin of the coins. The ever-present dime actually dates back more than two centuries. In 1784 Congressman Thomas Jefferson worked out a comprehensive coinage plan and submitted it to fellow legislators in the Confederation government.
As a result, in 1786 Congress enacted a basic coinage law in which we find the following: “And one coin containing thirty seven grains and five hundred and sixty four thousandths of a grain of fine silver, to be called a Disme.”
The word disme does not appear in Jefferson’s writings but the origin is known. In 1585 Simon Stevin, a Dutchman, published De Thiende, a system of rules for decimal fractions. The book was soon translated into French as La Disme, the title coined by the translator. The spelling disme is used in Mint accounts until 1837 when the spelling was changed to dime.
The 1786 coinage law was well written but never carried out because the Confederation had no money. All of this was to change after the new federal government began operations in April 1789.
In 1790 Congress asked Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton for a comprehensive report on a mint and coinage. In his January 1791 response, Hamilton recommended that there be a “silver piece, which shall be, in weight and value, a tenth part of the silver unit or dollar.” He did not give the new coin a name but did suggest that the 1786
