Carrying a Torch for the Roosevelt Dime By Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez
The Roosevelt Dime has been in production since 1946. Courtesy of PCGS TrueView.
Roosevelt Dimes have been a mainstay in circulation since 1946, debuting as a tribute to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The dime was a clear choice for memorializing the 32nd president, who was diagnosed with polio. He helped start the March of Dimes organization, which supported the eradication of polio and raised funds for the eventual creation of the polio vaccine. The Roosevelt Dime has seen very few changes in its nearly 80 years of production. The series did see a transition from a 90% silver composition to copper-nickel clad for circulating and most proof issues beginning in 1965, some minor die enhancements, and the relocation of the mintmark from the reverse to the obverse. However, the coin’s primary design has remained exactly the same for its entire production life. This is a claim that no other United States coin currently in production for circulation can make. The Lincoln Cent has undergone multiple reverse transformations since 1959, the Jefferson Nickel saw a series of revisions from 2004 to 2006, and the Washington Quarter has certainly seen its fair share of obverse and reverse design changes since 1999. Even the Kennedy Half Dollar, seldom encountered in circulation anymore, sported a special Bicentennial design in the mid-1970s, and the dollar coin – no longer officially produced for circulation – has also donned numerous designs each year since the mid-2000s. But the Roosevelt Dime just keeps doing its thing. Some may
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call it a humble coin, certainly the smallest coin in circulation these days in terms of its physical proportions. Measuring just 17.9 millimeters in diameter and presently weighing 2.27 grams, it’s smaller and lighter than even the one-cent coin. It also garners a relatively smaller number of collectors than, say, the Lincoln Cent and Washington Quarter. Yet, the Roosevelt Dime offers a ton of potential collecting avenues for numismatists. A standard date-and-mintmark set can be an ideal pursuit for collectors who don’t want to spend thousands of dollars or many years completing a nice set of contemporary coinage. However, those who are financially suited to do so and have the patience to invest in completing an exceptional set of Roosevelt Dimes will find this series right up their alley. No Dime Spared Roosevelt passed away on April 12, 1945, at the age of 63 from a massive intracerebral hemorrhage. Amid the international mourning upon the passing of the four-term president who helped carry the nation through some of the toughest years of the Great Depression and steadfast into World War II, calls to place the likeness of Roosevelt on the dime grew louder. Louisiana Representative James Hobson introduced a Congressional bill supporting the Roosevelt Dime on May 7