dimes

[Mark Odegard]

We smart kids of well-educated parents all grew up learning about the
spelling of dime as 'disme' when we were kids. And we pronounced it that way
too, at least in our heads: dizz-me.

Nickels are more interesting in terms of dialect. Supposedly, five-cent
coins had a high nickel content, like pennies have copper and dimes usta
have silver.

As a practical matter, most of us, like just about all merchants, are ready
to do away with the penny. It really is less than worthless. We await
further inflation, to make a 1965 US penny worth less than a British
farthing, a la the time the Brits did away with the farthing.


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