Is Double Dime Really Code for a 55mph Speed Limit?

[Merlin3189]

Someone asked me what a dime was (this is UK.) I, not knowing, nevertheless promptly replied, it must be 5 cents, because they called their 55mph speed limit the double dime. Then of course went to Google to check and found that it is 10 cents.
How does double 10 become 55? So back to Google to search for double dime. I found only one clear reference, on a developer site in 2013:

orangethirty on May 7, 2013 [-] "All I'm stating is that the double dime speed limit was enforced as a measure to reduce fuel consumption."

Alternatively I found a Minuteman album , "Double Nickels on the Dime", which refers to driving at 55mph on the interstate 10.

So, the only place I know there are lots of US citizens of an age to remember fuel shortages and national speed restriction, is here on PF.

Have I gone senile? Are the only people, who think double dime was a 55mph speed limit, orangethirty and I? If not, how come double dime is 55?

 

[scottdave]

I remember hearing "double nickels". A nickel is a coin worth 5 cents. I have never heard of 'double dime", though.

 

[jtbell]

Yes, “double nickel” is the only slang term I remember ever seeing/hearing for this. I was in college in the early 1970s when the 55 mph speed limit became a national mandate.

 

[berkeman]

Agreed, "double nickle" is 55mph -- we used to use it on CB Radio all the time back in the 70's.

"Dime" has a different meaning in basketball...

https://wordcounter.net/blog/2016/03/07/101271_what-is-a-dime-basketball.html

 

[Mark44]

orangethirty on May 7, 2013 [-] "All I'm stating is that the double dime speed limit was enforced as a measure to reduce fuel consumption."

orangethirty has no clue. The term was "double nickel," which referred to the 55 mph speed limit on interstate highways in the US at the time, due to the gasoline shortages.

 

[Klystron]

Perhaps you are referring to an older American expression from crime novels and movies "drop a dime"; that is, to use an old style pay telephone to inform to the police; "grass" in UK slang.

"Angry with her gangster boyfriend, the Lady in Red drops a dime on Dillinger; never imagining the cops would cut him down in a hail of bullets."