They Say There Are No Stupid Questions ;)

OK. This is a math question. I bet if you take all the combinations of buying something and getting change back from $1, you're likely to get more dimes than nickels. I'm sure there's a reason.

Personall, I collect pocket change and I've said to myself several times that I certainly don't end up wtih as many nickels as dimes at the end of the day.

I've simply given up reasoning why the US Mint does anything.
Taxay's book on the Mint pretty well documents the insane policies behind coining.

Remember pay phones? Those once took a dime to make a call--maybe the dime once favored the vending industry.

wow, jbuck - great job, this proves that indeed more dimes are needed!

Now lets look at it this way, as a ratio to nickels...

200 Cents = 5:1
40 Nickels = 1:1
80 Dimes = 2:1
150 Quarters = 3.75:1

Now using 2007 mintage figures...

Cents -- 7,401,200 -- 6.17:1
Nickels -- 1,197,840 -- 1:1
Dimes -- 2,089,500 -- 1.74:1
Quarters -- 2,796,640 -- 2.33:1

And the 2006 mintages...

Cents -- 8,234,000 -- 5.48:1
Nickels -- 1,502,400 -- 1:1
Dimes -- 2,828,000 -- 1.88:1
Quarters -- 2,941,000 -- 1.96:1

The theory falls a little out of favour, but there are other factors to consider, such as previous years mintages and the estimated circulating population of each denomination.

I suppose this is probably close enough for government work, right?

Correct.

In my analysis, all 40 nickels are used singly. Of the 80 dimes, 40 are used singly, while the other 40 are in pairs.