How many mm is the thickness of a dime?

Answer 1

Cut to the chase and go to the link below if you are not interested in the empirical approach explained here. These are measurements that I took with my shiny 2005 dime and my Mitutoyo micrometer. The micrometer is in inches, and is several years old; it has gotten very little use and is in excellent condition. I converted my measurements in inches to mm. Presuming that my measurements are reasonably accurate, my dime is 1.19mm thick at the center, and 1.30mm thick at the edge. My measurement is a little different from the linked site information, which I can probably attribute to some wear on the coin, inherent limits of the micrometer, possible slight calibration error, or errors of technique. I re-measured, using 10 coins and 18 coins. Since I measure at the approximate center of the coins, and the stacks of coins rest edge to edge, I corrected for the top and bottom edges by adding to my average thickness the difference between my center and edge measures for one coin. For 18 dimes I calculate a thickness of 1.38mm For 10 dimes I calculate a thickness of 1.36mm All these measurements are telling me several things. My technique is reasonably good for "desk-top" work; my micrometer may not be as accurate or as well calibrated as I assumed; my correction factor for outer edges of stacked coins could be off and might be more accurate after several averaged measurements; there could be variability in the coins that I am not accounting for; the coins and the micrometer may not be at the correct temperature-- any number of other things may be affecting my measurements. One puzzling thing is that my measurement for the diameter of the dime is almost exactly in agreement with the link. I measure .7045 inches, and the site gives .705 inches. It's even possiblethat my measurement is closer to the actual measurement, and the site's .705 is a rounded figure. Nevertheless, this has been a lot of fun. See link for official specifications.