Finding a dime
Finding a dime is a small moment that many people take as a sign. The dime is the smallest American coin, and its ridged edge began as a guard against people shaving off silver. Even small worth was thought worth guarding.
What it may mean
Run a fingernail along a dime and you feel ridges, more than a hundred of them. They date from the days when dimes were silver and people could shave a little metal off a smooth edge and still spend the coin at full value; reeding made any clipping obvious. Since 1965 dimes have held no silver, yet the ridges stay, a habit of protection that outlived its reason. The tiniest coin you own carries a built-in defense of its own worth. A found dime can send your attention to what protects your value day to day: the boundaries that keep your time from being shaved away a minute at a time, the habits that would make any loss obvious. Plenty of finders take dimes as personal signs, and what you make of yours is up to you.
Depending on how you saw it
A dime in the dryer or the couch
Dimes are thin and light, so they slip out of pockets into cushions, car seats and washing machines more easily than bigger coins. Small things escape through the smallest gaps. Which tiny leak in your week, five minutes here and there, adds up to more than you think?
An old silver dime
A dime dated 1964 or earlier is 90 percent silver and worth more than ten cents for its metal. It looks almost the same as the others until you check the date. Who around you is worth far more than their face value, and have you checked the date lately?
Dimes turning up again and again
When the same small find repeats for weeks, it begins to seem addressed to you. Part of that is attention: once you notice dimes, you see more of them. What have you started noticing everywhere since it began to matter to you?
Why it happens in nature
The dime is the smallest and thinnest United States coin in circulation, so it is easy to drop and to miss. Dimes struck through 1964 were 90 percent silver, and the reeded edge, shared with other silver coins, made clipping visible. Modern dimes are copper-nickel clad, but the reeding stayed.
To reflect on
What keeps your time and energy from being shaved away bit by bit?