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Dime (Canadian coin)

Canadian coin

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ3032560
Source-derived summary

In Canada, a dime is a coin worth ten cents, equal to 1⁄10 of a Canadian dollar. It has been the physically smallest Canadian coin since 1922; it is smaller even than the penny, despite its higher face value. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, the official national term of the coin is the 10-cent piece, but in practice, the term dime predominates in English-speaking Canada. It is nearly identical in size to the American dime. Unlike its American counterpart, the Canadian dime is magnetic due to a distinct metal composition. From 1968 to 2000, it was composed entirely of nickel, and since 2001, it has consisted of a steel core with plating composed of layers of nickel and copper.

The most prevalent version of the coin features a portrait of Elizabeth II on the obverse, although a new version featuring Charles III was introduced in 2023. The reverse contains a representation of the Bluenose, a famous Canadian schooner. According to the Royal Canadian Mint, "Artist Emanuel Hahn developed his design for the 10-cent coin from photos of the famous Bluenose schooner." The coin is produced by the Royal Canadian Mint at its facility in Winnipeg.

The word dime comes from the French word dîme, meaning 'tithe' or 'tenth part', from the Latin decima [pars].

Editorial summary

“Dime (Canadian coin)” enters the record as canadian coin. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Dime, Canadian and coin can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1922, 1968, 2000, 2001—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Dime, Canadian and coin.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Dime (Canadian coin)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Dime, Canadian and coin provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3032560. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1922, 1968, 2000 and 2001.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Dime (Canadian coin)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Dime (Canadian coin) primary sources, Dime (Canadian coin) archive and Dime research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Dime (Canadian coin)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.