How Much Does It Cost to Make a Dime? (Price Guide)

The dime is one of the coins the U.S. Mint makes at a profit. Unlike the penny and the nickel, its unit cost comes in below its face value, so the government earns money each time the Federal Reserve buys a new one. The gap has narrowed, though, and the dime was the one denomination whose cost rose in the latest year.

The figures here are the Mint's fiscal year 2025 numbers, as reported by CoinShop Finder. Fiscal year 2025 ended on September 30, 2025. The Mint's annual report is the original document, and this page cites it through that summary because the Mint's site can be hard to reach from some networks.

In fiscal year 2025 the Mint reported a unit cost of 6.77¢ per dime. Unit cost is the full price of producing a coin and delivering it to the Federal Reserve Banks. It is lower than the dime's face value, which is why the coin shows a profit in the Mint's accounts.

Yes. The Mint calls the difference between a coin's face value and its cost to make seigniorage. For fiscal year 2025 the Mint reported seigniorage of $42,700,000 on dimes. That profit helps cover the losses the Mint takes on the nickel and, until production stopped, the penny.

The Mint does not itemize the dime's cost on this page, but a few general factors apply to every circulating coin. Metal prices matter, since the dime is a clad coin made from copper and nickel layers. Manufacturing and overhead add to the cost, and so does shipping coins to the Federal Reserve Banks. Costs may also shift from year to year with production volume.

Mint reports from earlier years show how the dime's unit cost has changed. Each figure is the unit cost reported for that fiscal year.

The table includes the lowest unit cost in the series, which was reported for fiscal year 2016. The dime's cost in fiscal year 2025 is more than double that low. Unlike the penny, nickel, and quarter, the dime's cost went up from fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2025 rather than down.

Comparing each coin's unit cost to its face value explains how the Mint's results balance out. The penny and nickel cost more than they are worth. The dime and quarter cost less. The quarter earns the most seigniorage of the circulating coins, and the dime comes next. See the pages on the cost to make a penny, a nickel, and a quarter for the other figures.

A coin's unit cost is not fixed. It depends on what the Mint paid for metal in that period, how many coins it struck, and how it spread overhead across denominations. Orders from the Federal Reserve also change over time. If the mix of coins ordered shifts, the cost per coin and the total seigniorage may shift too. For the details behind any one year, read the Mint's annual report.

Unit cost measures what it takes to make one coin for circulation. It does not describe what a dime is worth to a collector, and it leaves out collector products, which the Mint prices separately. For proof or commemorative coins, check the Mint's product pages, and speak with a coin dealer or numismatic professional if you want an appraisal.