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June 19, 2005
No love for dimes
I used to collect coins when I was little. I loved finding wheatback pennies and bicentennial quarters in my change. I ended up saving about 50 pennies and $25 worth of quarters, which I think is pretty good since I didn't have much money to spend in the first place to generate change. My major income sources were birthday cash ($10 from my grandma on my birthday and $5 from my grandma on my brother's birthday - she didn't want one of us to feel left out) and the money I split with my brother when we recycled aluminum cans.
I still have all the quarters. In fact, a few weeks ago I was doing laundry and ran out of quarters for the machine downstairs. I was tempted to use a couple of the quarters from the collection - after, all, they're not rare or anything and worth exactly $0.25 - but luckily, after scrounging around for 15 minutes, I finally found two in the cupholder in my girlfriend's car and didn't have to make a tough decision.
Pennies.org is a website devoted to the love of the penny. I'm ashamed to say a congressman from the great state of Arizona introduced legislation to get rid of the penny. These penny lovers even put together a top ten list of reasons to keep the penny (although reasons #7 and #8 are the same, but since the other eight reasons sound pretty good, I'll let it slide).
A google search shows people really love their pennies and new state quarters. Nickels don't seem to be collected as much, but I just found a shiny new "Westward Journey" nickel in my change and I think it's great, so I'm pulling it out of circulation.
Where are the new dimes, though? Does the U.S. Mint have a plan for upgrading these? Why do we get new nickels and quarters and $20 bills but no new dimes? In the course of my exhausting 10 minutes of coin research, I stumbled across the "Dimes Must Die" page. This guy builds up a good case for getting rid of the dime. I don't know if he mentioned it on his site that in Las Vegas you can gamble pennies, nickels, quarters, half dollars, and dollars in the slot machines, but no dimes.
It all adds up to one thing - no love for dimes.
Posted by brian at June 19, 2005 10:09 AM
Comments
Hey Brian,
Did you ever find any Buffalo nickels? I mean the old ones from the 20s and 30s, not the new ones. What do you think of those?
-- Bud
Posted by: bud at June 21, 2005 01:06 PM
No, I've never found a Buffalo nickel, though I received one as a gift. I like 'em!
Posted by: brian at June 22, 2005 08:07 AM