Dime for My Thoughts

I love dimes! Dimes are great, I mean think about it. If you have a handful of dimes you have something, you could easily have five dollars in your hand. They are light and don't weight your pockets down. Not like nickels; they are way too heavy for their value. A whole pocket full of nickels won’t buy you crap, but it could give you a hernia. We should just boycott nickels as they are a waste of metal. I think most people are less likely to bend down and pick up a nickel from the street than any other coin.

Pennies hold special place in my heart, as I think they do for all of us, due in part to memories of being a kid and amassing a "fortune" in pennies. Also, I think their good luck status gives them non-monitary value. I imagine most people are thinking about a wishing fountain in the back of their heads when they stick that penny in their pocket. And a little credit goes to celebrity backing as well, namely Ben Franklin ("A penny saved is penny earned"). I personally think their underdog status gives them appeal. Even though technically they are worthless they still hang in there finding their way into pockets and piggy banks.

Now everything else is a novelty. Fifty cent pieces, the dollar coin and Susan B. Anthony coins. They serve no real purpose; vending machines don’t usually take them and cashiers overlook them. If one does stumble into your pocket it is unlikely it will be spent again. It will be put it in a box or a jar to be pulled out at parties and displayed like a freak of currency or some "foreign" coin.

Granted paper money is every body’s preference and by far quarters are the most useful of the coin family, but dimes are special. They surprise you with their value. You could be starving and only have a pocket full of change. At first glance you despair not thinking that you can get a $.99 burger, but then you count your dimes and magically they provide, bringing hope and putting food in you stomach.