You're previewing the Bennett demo family. Numbers, schedule, and kids are sample data.Start your own

What a Coin Is Actually Worth

Money · 4 min

What a Coin Is Actually Worth

Put a nickel next to a dime. The nickel is fatter, wider and heavier. Now guess which one is worth more — and get ready to be annoyed.

Two coins, side by side

Find a nickel and a dime. Put them next to each other.

Look at the nickel. It is wider. It is thicker. Pick both up and the nickel is heavier too — you can feel it in your hand.

So which one is worth more?

Almost everybody points at the nickel. It is the bigger one. Bigger means more.

Bigger does not mean more

The dime is worth more.

The little thin one. The one you would drop and not notice.

A dime is ten cents. A nickel is five cents. And the dime is the smallest coin in the whole pocket — smaller than the penny too, and lighter than the penny as well.

So a bigger coin can be worth less. A smaller coin can be worth more. Size tells you nothing at all.

How big a coin is does not tell you what it is worth. Neither does how heavy it is.

Check yourself

Here is a penny and a dime. The penny is wider than the dime, and it is heavier than the dime. Which one is worth more?

So what does decide?

A very long time ago, a coin was worth the metal inside it. Not a pretend amount — the actual lump of metal.

And dimes used to be made of silver. Silver is a special metal, and people would give you a lot for a little bit of it. A nickel was made of ordinary metal. So a small silver coin really could beat a bigger plain one. That is where this whole thing started.

Now the surprising part. There is no silver in a dime today. None. It is made of ordinary metal, just like the nickel.

And it is still worth more.

It is the number, and the agreeing

Look closely at a dime. It says one dime on it. That word is the coin telling you what it is.

And everybody agrees to it. The shopkeeper takes it. Your grandma takes it. The machine in the car park takes it.

That is the whole thing. A coin is worth what is stamped on it, and it works because everybody has agreed to take it for that.

A coin is worth what it says it is, and it works because everybody agrees to take it.

Which of these is a clue?

You are holding a coin you have never seen before. Sort each of these into the pile it belongs in.

Tap an item, then tap where it belongs

Tells you what it is worth

Tells you nothing

Check yourself

Somebody hands you a coin from another country. It is enormous and very shiny. You want to know what it is worth. What do you do?

Three things to keep

01The dime is the smallest and it beats the big ones. Smaller than the penny, smaller than the nickel, and worth more than both.
02Size and weight are not clues. You cannot find out what a coin is worth by holding it in your hand.
03The coin tells you, and everybody agrees. Read what is stamped on it. It works because the shopkeeper takes it for that.

Keep going

Checks answered: 0 of 2

You’re previewing as a parent — nothing here is recorded.

That’s the last one in this channel for now. More are on the way.

Back to all episodes

Where these figures come from

U.S. Mint coin specifications: the dime is 17.91 mm across and weighs 2.268 g; the penny is 19.05 mm and 2.500 g; the nickel is 21.21 mm and 5.000 g. The dime is therefore the smallest and lightest of the three, while being worth ten cents against the penny's one and the nickel's five (United States Mint, 'Coin Specifications'). Dimes were struck in 90% silver until the Coinage Act of 1965 removed silver from circulating dimes and quarters and replaced it with a copper-nickel clad composition (United States Mint; Coinage Act of 1965). The five-cent piece has been made of a copper-nickel alloy since 1866 — an ordinary base metal, never silver in normal circulation issues (United States Mint). U.S. coins and currency are legal tender, meaning they are valid for payment by law rather than by the metal in them (31 U.S.C. §5103).