United States dollar

Criticisms of U.S. coins

Uniquely for a major currency, the value of U.S. coins is not inscribed on them with a number. Instead, the value is written in English words, presenting potential difficulties for visitors to the country who do not speak the language well. Furthermore, the coins' inscriptions do not follow a consistent pattern of describing the value in cents: "One Cent" (penny), "Five Cents" (nickel) "One Dime" (dime, worth 10 cents), "Quarter Dollar" (quarter, worth 25 cents), and "Half Dollar" (worth 50 cents); knowledge of these terms is required for visitors. (It may also be necessary for visitors to learn the coins' colloquial names.)

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For historical reasons, the size of the coins does not increase consistently with their face value. Both the one cent (penny) and the five cent (nickel) are larger than the dime, worth ten cents, and the less common 50-cent coin is larger than the recent Sacagawea and Susan B. Anthony dollar coins. The sizes of the dime, quarter, and half dollar are holdovers from before 1965, when they were made from 90% silver; (the half dollar was struck in 40% silver clad until 1970; in 1971 it was struck in the same cupronickel clad as the dime, quarter, and new Eisenhower dollar) their sizes thus depended upon the amount of silver which cost their respective values, and this helps explain why the dime is the smallest of the coins. The current diameter used in dollar coins was introduced in 1979 with the Susan B. Anthony dollar, so their size was not dependent upon silver, and was thus chosen somewhat arbitrarily, with no relation to the Eisenhower dollars which were the same size as the Peace and Morgan silver dollars used earlier in the 20th century.

Related Topics:
Sacagawea - Susan B. Anthony - Silver

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Many object to the low values and cumbersome sizes of U.S. coins, as unlike other First World nations, the U.S. has never adjusted the basic scheme of its coinage to accommodate the many-fold inflation of the past century. Historically coins were intended to be a convenient form of money for making a wide variety of small, day-to-day purchases, and still function this way in Europe and Great Britain. However, in America this is no longer the case, and for many coins are merely there to make change.

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