Roosevelt Dime
In 1945 just as World War II was nearing an end, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who been President of the United States for 4 straight terms past away at the age of 63. The people of the United mourned the loss of the man who had seen them through the greatest economic depression of all time, and a World War. They wanted and even needed to see some type of memorial to their beloved and fallen President.
The Treasury Department agree with this need and quickly decided that having Roosevelt’s likeness on the dime would be the perfect memorial. The dime was chosen for an excellent reason. Roosevelt who suffered from polio, had help start the March of Dimes to end childhood polio during his first term in office, so the Treasury Department decided that the Dime was the perfect coin for their tribute to the fallen President.
The task of designing the new dime was turned over to Chief Engraver Sinnock. His initial designs for the Roosevelt dime were submitted on October 12, 1945 and quickly rejected for very specific reasons. Since the new dimes need to be minted by January 30, 1046 President Roosevelt’s birthday and the kick off of that years March of Dimes campaign Sinnock went back to his workroom and quickly made revisions to his designs based on the criticisms he was given. The new design was accepted and that design appears on dimes from 1946 through present day.
The Front of The Roosevelt Dime
The front of the Roosevelt dime features the head of Roosevelt facing towards the left and taking up most of the dime. Center vertically on the left side of the coin is the word LIBERTY in smaller caps IN GOD WE TRUST appears on the left side below Roosevelt’s chin. Sinnock’s initials appear below Roosevelt’s neck with the date at the bottom of the right side of the coin.
Reverse Side of The Roosevelt Dime
On the Reverse side of the Roosevelt dime an upright lit torch appears in the center with an olive branch on the left side of the torch and an oak branch on the right. The words E PLURIBUS UNUM is written across the branches and the torch (the spacing of which is a bit awkward) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is arranged in an arch over the top of the torch and ONE DIME is arched below the torch at the bottom of the dime.
Mint Marks
The Roosevelt dimes have been minted at three different mints, Philadelphia , San Francisco and Denver. Dimes minted between 1946 and 1964 have the mint mark left of the torch base, except for Philadelphia that did not add a mint mark until 1980.
From 1968 through present day the mint marks appear above the coins date.
Dimes minted in 1965 through 1967 did not carry a mint mark regardless of where they were minted and there were no coins minted in San Francisco from 1955 until 1965.
Due to the number of Roosevelt dimes minted each and every year, there are an ample number of these coins and therefore are of little interest to collectors except perhaps those who are collecting dimes from every mint for every year.
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