Bead-Dime Box Gray Stone Donut TB

This trackable has the goal to circulate more than five years and to be moved by at least 25 cachers. That is a target rate of five drops per year for five years, or a drop every 73 days.   As of 9-Aug-21 it had survived for 4.3 years and had been moved by 17 cachers, for an average release every 92 days. Keep it moving!

No permission is needed to leave the U.S. While in the U.S., please drop it in a Premium Member only OR a rural cache near a busy trail or road. Do not place it in an urban cache or abandon it at a caching event where there is no security. Transport the bug in the original plastic bag for as long as the bag lasts; the bag keeps the trackable clean, protects the number and prevents tangling with other items. Otherwise, take the trackable anywhere you wish.

This is one of a series of large beads obtained from different places and converted into travel bugs.  They are named for Texas towns with interesting names or histories.  Much of the text is from the online Handbook of Texas or texasescapes.com.

There's an Old and a New Dime Box. The name comes from the practice of leaving a dime in a box at Brown's Mill to get a letter delivered to Giddings. This was before a Federal Post Office opened in 1877.  Old Dime Box is the second oldest (Evergreen is the oldest) town in Lee County.  The PO opened under the name Brown's Mill or a variation thereof, and in short order a lot of mail was misdirected to Brownsville. The postal people were livid. They had a reputation for refusing names that could be confusing with existing post offices, but this one got right by them. Ordered to change the name, the townsfolk submitted Dime Box and it was accepted. 

In 1913, the Southern Pacific Railroad came within 3 miles of the town and almost everyone moved for the convenience this afforded.  Enough remained to retain the name and they decided to become Old and New.

"New Dime Box" opened the 1944 March of Dimes Campaign and the town was featured in Life magazine. The Postmaster General even showed up to be photographed on the front porch of the store with an oversized mailbox which was sent to the White House. Today an oversized vintage dime stands in a transparent case in downtown Dime Box.