In this post, you will learn about American coin names. This is a subject of curiosity among many of us, and most people are totally unaware of the history behind these names. So, without any more delays, let’s learn how these coins actually got their names like nickels, quarters, dimes, pennies, and dollars, etc.
Everything changed with the passing of the Coinage Act of 1792, which layed out the framework for regulating money produced in the United States. After a month of passing the Coinage Act, an act to provide a copper coinage was brought into the law, and the first-ever official United States’ minted currency was slated to be produced. Among the other forms of currency to be produced in the United States monetary system, copper cent and the half-cent were first minted in 1793. The cent also got the name of penny besides being called by that name. The name “penny” came from the name of Britain’s penny, which had been circulated previously in the country. The British penny got its name from the Old English penning, and this, in turn, is thought to be derived from the German pfennig.
The Nickel
The “Nickel” has not always been the name for the US five-cent coin. The half disme, which was pronounced as a dime, was not made of nickel. Like the ten-cent coin, the half dime was created out of silver and weighed exactly half of the dime, therefore half the value. During the time of the Civil War, metals were required in a huge quantity to support the war efforts. This resulted in the majority of coins going out of circulation, including the half dime. After the Civil War, a totally new type of five-cent piece was introduced, which was made of a copper and nickel alloy instead of silver. Until 1883, there was nothing like nickel alloy. After the lobbying efforts of industrialist Joseph Wharton, the nickel alloy replaced the half dime and became widely circulated as “nickel”. The name was given after the metal it was made up of.
The Dime
The dime was the first coin that was technically created by the United States Mint. The United States Mint produced the dime by borrowing a coin machine before the Mint building was started. However, the dime which was to be used by the public in the US was not produced until 1796. As the name suggests, the name “dime” was derived from the Latin word “Decimus”, which means one-tenth.
The Quarter
The Quarter was first produced in 1796, and it received its name to point out its monetary worth as a quarter of a dollar. The Quarter system was slightly unusual as using a ⅕ denomination was more common in many currencies across the globe. Therefore, ¼ denomination was chosen instead of ⅕ denomination in order to equal two Spanish reales. The informal name for two Spanish reales was two-bits, and that is the reason the Quarter in the US was alternatively called two-bits.
The Dollar
Unlike many other American coin names, dollar was derived from the word thaler, which was an abbreviation for the word Joachimsthaler. Joachimsthaler was a type of coin made from silver mined near Joachimsthaler in Bohemia. Eventually, Joachimisthaler was shortened to just “thaler” and ultimately lent its name to the Spanish pieces of eight, known as the Spanish dollar. As the United States dollar was modeled after the pieces of eight, they borrowed dollar from the informal name for the Spanish currency.
