[Idiom] What is "turn on a pinhead"

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emsr2d2

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I watched this video about ​what people in [STRIKE]Corolado[/STRIKE] Colorado [STRIKE]thinks[/STRIKE] think about Donald Trump.
At the [STRIKE]very last[/STRIKE] end, the journalist said (no colon here) "This is an election that could turn on a pinhead."

What does this mean? Thanks!

The video link is here: https://www.facebook.com/theguardia...977308337360/1477056788988050/?type=2&theater

Please note my corrections above. It's important to start every sentence with a capital letter and add every sentence with one, appropriate punctuation mark.

It's not a standard idiom but a pin head (the head of a pin) is very small so the suggestion is that the presidential election will be very close; the two candidates will probably get similar numbers of votes.
 

GoesStation

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The similar American expression to turn on a dime means "to turn suddenly". A dime is the physically smallest American coin, worth a tenth of a dollar. I imagine it puzzles foreign visitors, who wonder how much it's worth (it doesn't say) and why it's smaller than the penny, which is worth one tenth as much.
 

GoesStation

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Even when we are told that it's a dime, that doesn't mean much unless we know that that's worth two nickels. That you sometimes call a cent a penny just adds to the fun.

We always call our one-cent piece a penny. Only the penny ("one cent") and nickel ("five cents") actually say how many cents they're worth. The ten-cent piece mysteriously proclaims its value as "ONE DIME", and the twenty-five cent piece tells its holder that it is a "QUARTER DOLLAR". The little-used fifty-cent piece adheres to this proud tradition.

None of our coins are labeled with crass numerals. :)
 

GoesStation

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That's because the American system was originally truly a decimal system. Well, it still is, though the mills have vanished.

1 dollar - 10 Dimes (tenths)
1 dime - 10 cents (hundredths)
1 cent - 10 mills (thousandths)

Mils still exist. They have only one l (I suppose because they can't afford more). Property tax levies are denominated in mils per dollar of assessed value, at least in my state.
 

GoesStation

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It never occurred to me till now, but I suppose it was consistent that even when we had coins worth less than a cent, they were denominated in fractions of a cent rather than multiples of a mil.
 

SoothingDave

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Calling someone a "pinhead" is an insult. So I think there is some word play here where the write is taking the idea of turning on a dime while also calling one or both of the candidates "pinheads."
 
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