Half-Dime

A silver coin of the United States, of the value of five cents, or the onetwentieth part of a dollar. It weighed nineteen grains and two-tenths of a grain, — equal to four-hundredths of an ounce troy, — and was of the fineness of nine hundred thousandths; nine hundred parts being pure silver, and one hundred mint law, passed Jan. 18, 1837. The weight of the coin was fixed by the Ist section of the act of Feb. 21, 1853. The second section of this last-dted act directed that silvet coins issued in conformity to that act shall be a legal tender in payment of debts for all sums not exceeding five dollars. This provision applies to the half-dollar and all silver coins below that denomination. The first coinage of half-dimes was in 1793. A few half “dismes,” with a likeness of Mrs. Washington, the wife of the president, upon the obverse of the coin, were issued in 1792; but they were not of the regular coinage. By act of 9 June, 1879, silver coin of smaller denominations than one dollar shall be a legal tender in all sums not exceeding ten dollars. The coining of the half-dime was abolished by act of 12 Feb. 1873. Its place was supplied by a five-cent piece composed of three-fourths copper and one-fourth nickel, of the weight of seventy-seven and sixteenhundredths grains troy. The “minor coins,” viz., the five, three, two, and one cent pieces, are a legal tender for any amount not exceeding twenty-five cents in any one payment

A silver (now nickel) coin of the United States, of the value of five cents.

Defined under Half in Black's Law Dictionary.

A silver (now nickel) coin of the United States, of the value of tive cents.