A Bit of Background
A dime is a tenth of a dollar. It is the ten cent coin in the United States. It is made of 8.33% nickel and the rest of it is copper.
There are some dimes in circulation that are of different design and make. There is one that is made of gold but only few pieces were minted.
This gold dime was part of an advertising campaign and the first one who got hold of a piece got a fortune for it. The others who also got hold of these gold dimes and who have turned in their find were also given some award after the authenticity of these have been verified.
The first one who turned in his find was given $25,000 while the rest got $1,000 each.
How much is the gold dime worth?
The Amazing Sprint Sense Dime Find made 1,000 pieces of gold dime and spread it in different locations. These dimes were part of an advertising campaign by Sprint. The campaign has stated that the gold dime can be found in different places and whoever gets hold of a piece should get in touch with them immediately.
According to Sprint the first one to call in and declare that he got hold of a gold dime will get $25,000 in exchange for it after going through the verification process. All the others who call in and declare that they too have a gold dime will get $1,000 for each gold dime turned in to Sprint. With the cash prize comes a prepaid long distance award.
So in truth these gold dimes were not really minted for circulation purposes but just for advertising campaign purposes and nothing more. It was used to promote Sprint’s promo of a “10-cent-a-minute flat long distance rate nights and weekends”.
Basis for the value of dime
Do you have coins in your possession that you have kept because they have some unusual marks in them? Here are some of the things you can do to scrutinize them and determine their values:
- Look carefully at the surface of the coin and check for mistakes. The most common but valuable mistake is the misaligned position of the die in the coin that makes a double image of some of the letters or numbers.
- Sometimes there are coins that have typographical errors in letters and numbers.
- Look for reversed numbers and letters
- There are times when numbers and letters are spaced too far apart.
- Consider also the year it was minted.
- Check if the coins you have are commemorative ones.
- Consider also how many of such coin was minted. The lesser the number of a particular coin, the higher the value it will have over time.
After scrutinizing the coins you have kept, you can go check on a list for the values of each. You might have coins with rare dates, mint marks or varieties of coins that are scarce in your keeping that can give you a fortune.
The gold dime was not meant for circulation not like the gold coins.
The value of gold coins is determined by how rare the pieces you have on hand, how old the coin is, its condition and also the number of coins that were minted originally. Collecting gold coins is considered as a good investment not like gold dimes.
They have been a source of extra money just because of an advertising campaign of a telephone company that gave some monetary award for people who got hold of these gold dimes.
Having the above information, a gold dime is not really money in circulation but it is something that can be worth something big.
There are still some out there who are lucky holders of these gold dimes and who have not realized that they are holding something with value. If you are one of them, go and get in touch with Sprint and have your gold dime verified and claim your prize.
Sometimes we just need to look at some of the things, particularly coins, that we keep in our treasure boxes and see if what we have are worth a fortune or would give us some monetary award. Often it pays to collect items for keepsake or for future needs
Resources:
http://www.coinstudy.com/dime-values.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqmHzzzfAGg
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=124252
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_(United_States_coin)
https://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/circulatingCoins/?action=CircDime
http://bottomlinepersonal.com/you-may-have-these-rare-coins-and-valuable-pennies-in-your-pocket/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_coin