Sales and Use Tax. The State levies a general retail sales and use tax of 4.75%. The general rate applies to purchases of tangible commodities, certain digital property, room and cottage rentals, admission charges to an entertainment activity, service contracts, and laundry and dry cleaning services.
For the first time in U.S. history, the cost of manufacturing both a penny and a nickel is more than the 1-cent and 5-cent values of the coins themselves. Skyrocketing metals prices are behind the increase, the U.S. Mint said in a letter to members of Congress last week. The Mint estimates it will cost 1.23 cents per penny and 5.73 cents per nickel this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The cost of producing a penny has risen 27% in the last year, while nickel manufacturing costs have risen 19%. BACKGROUND:A brief history of the penny.
The dime is a ten cent coin, one tenth of a United States dollar, labeled formally as one dime. The denomination was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792.The dime is the smallest in diameter and is the thinnest of all U.S. coins currently minted for circulation. As of 2011, the dime coin cost 5.65 cents to produce.The word dime comes from the French word dime, dÃ®me  meaning  tithe or tenth, part from The latin [decima] . parsith the passage of the Coinage Act of 1965, the dime's silver content was removed. Dimes from 1965 to the present are composed of outer layers of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel, bonded to a pure copper core.