It's time to abolish dimes

By the numbers: The titular coin in "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," written in 1932, was worth about $2.15 in today's money. Even during the Great Depression it couldn't buy much.

• The last time the U.S. discontinued a coin was in 1857, when the half-cent sensibly disappeared. That coin was worth almost twice as much as a contemporary dime.

The bottom line: Dimes and smaller denominations serve no useful purpose. In a rational country, the nation's pockets would be weighed down with them no longer.