One-tenth of a dollar.
1786. Aug. 8. Order of the Continental Congress. (N.E.D.)
1789. If the unit dollar was made worth exactly 100 dismes, of the value of English half-pence, it would then be 50d. sterling.—Gazette of the U.S., N.Y., July 4. [The writer evidently wrote dismes for cents.]
1799. Elias Boudinot, Director of the U.S. Mint, on Jan. 3 reports the coinage of “27,550 Dismes.”—The Aurora, Phila., March 20.
1848. I was her favorite, and got many a new penny and shining half-dime to drop into my little tin savings-box at home.—Knick. Mag., xxxii. 231 (Sept.).
1851. “Music of the Dollars and the Dimes,” a poem in imitation of The Bells.—Id., xxxviii. 412 (Oct.).
