All About the Roosevelts, Baybay!!

You gotta love Taco Bell's latest commercial. In the same vein as SNL's "I’m on a Boat" (in which a couple of dopey white guys rap about their brush with pseudo-luxury), the Taco Bell ad pays lyrical tribute to the smallest and thinnest of the American coins – the dime.

Of course, you’d still need to put at least eight of these dimes together to actually order a menu item from Taco Bell. But it got me thinking: What was a dime worth back in the day, and what can it get you now (besides 1/10 of a Cheesy Double Beef Burrito)?

First, a little history (it’s interesting, I promise)

The dime came to be in 1796, and first featured Lady Liberty on one side and an eagle on the other. Originally 90% silver, dimes are now minted from a manmade alloy called Cupronickel.

The dime has undergone five design changes through the years. Franklin D. Roosevelt first appeared on the dime in 1946 – one year after his death – and he continues to hold that exclusive spot today.

Interestingly, FDR landing on the dime is not coincidence: it was because of his involvement with the March of Dimes charity organization that this particular coin is so fitting. (The March of Dimes organization was so named because it urged the public to send in dimes to fund polio and infantile paralysis research).

Is it all about the Roosevelts?

But just what exactly is the value of a "Roosevelt" today? Does a dime have any real buying power left, or is it simply one of the less-annoying coins to be handed back by a cashier because of its high value-to-size ratio? (It is, after all, worth ten times as much as a penny, but weighs .232 g less!)

And maybe more to the point, was the dime ever able to purchase something really cool, something you could get excited about? Let’s take a look back to see how the value of a single dime has changed.

Here’s a few examples of what a dime could buy you over the past 100 years:

1900: For 10 cents, you could buy two bars of fairy soap - enough to keep you and your kids clean for about a month. Now, you’ll pay about twenty times that (around $2) for two bars of basic Ivory.    

1910: Premium cigarettes often came in packages of ten, and you could buy one package for a dime. Nowadays, if you still happen to smoke, you’re looking at a cost of at least $5.50 for a pack of 20 after taxes (about 27 times what cigarettes used to cost).

1920: Chewing gum has always been a great alternative to smoking. In the 1920s, a dime could buy you 20 sticks of cigarette-shaped gum in your choice of three flavors. Now, 20 pieces of Orbit gum will cost you about $1.40, or 14 times more than in the days of yore.

1930: For a single, shiny dime, you could get two glass bottles of carbonated soda. Today, we’ve been downgraded to aluminum and plastic (neither are as elegant as glass), and two cans out of a vending machine will cost us at least four quarters.

1940: A 16-inch model airplane, priced at 10 cents, provided our parents and grandparents hours (if not days or weeks) of enjoyment when they were little. Today, a model airplane of approximately this same scale goes for at least $10, but – in this age of XBOXes and PS3's –  it might find its way to the back of the closet in a matter of minutes. 

1950: A pay phone in the 1950's required only a dime to make a local call. Today, calling locally from a pay phone will cost 50 cents – if you can find one, that is. Most of us now pay between $10 to $150 a month for mobile phone and data plans. 

1960: DC was still selling 10-cent comic books in 1960. Today, a comic book will run you at least $2, depending on hero and publisher. And, of course, that 10-cent comic you bought 50 years ago may be worth hundreds of dollars today. 

1970: Standard postage was 10 cents in the 1970's. Today, you could buy five two-cent stamps to cover the recent postage increase from $.42 to $.44. Postage has been raised four times over the past four years.

1980: Remember slap bracelets? Those hip little accessories cost about a dime each back in the day at Claire's. Now, the cheapest piece of jewelry the young girls accessory store has to offer runs $1.99...but I'd rub it with alcohol before wearing it, and even then it may turn green.

1990: The Japanese card game Pokemon came out in the mid 1990's. You could buy an individual card for around 10 cents. Plenty are still available on eBay at this pricepoint today.

Today: What can a dime get you today? How about 10 minutes of parking-meter minutes in most major U.S. cities? Or, if you’re female, why not a drink on Wednesday nights at Hawaiian Tropic Zone in NYC? Perhaps a 4x6" print from SnapFish or a buffalo wing?

What else can you buy for a dime today that would make you smile??