5 Cents "Half Disme"

Reverse

Flying eagle above value.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
UNI . STATES OF AMERICA
HALF
DISME
*

Edge

Diagonally reeded

Comment

The half disme of 1792, the first official coinage issue struck after the passage of the Mint Act of 1792, was long thought to be a pattern rather than a circulating medium of exchange. After all, neither it nor the other denominations produced in that year were ever adopted. However, Edgar. H. Adams, who classified the 1792 half disme as a pattern, acknowledged in 1913 that it "could very well have been a coin of regular issue ... ." Most researchers today agree that the coins were, indeed, intended for circulation. Thomas Jefferson's personal account book relates him travelling to his Monticello estate the day after receiving 1,500 half dismes on July 13, 1792, paying for meals and barbers with them, giving them to charity, and handing them out to children along the way. While some undoubtedly kept the half dismes as souvenirs of the new coinage, others clearly spent them.

There has been a lot of discussion over the pronunciation of the word "disme," but this poem printed in the New-York Herald, January 1, 1803, appears to provide the answer (it's the same as "dime"):

The Tax direct which you Denounce,
By Northern States paid every ounce,
When lords of proud Virginia’s clime,
Refus’d to pay a single disme,
Stands a rich item to our credit,
While Democrats assume the merit.

Interesting fact

Price

Date	Mintage	VG	F	VF	XF	AU	UNC
1792	1500	-	-	-	-	-	-

Values in the table are based on evaluations by sales realized on Internet platforms. They serve as an indication only for 5 Cents "Half Disme" 1792 coin.