In my grandparents’ house there was real affection for this small (18mm) American coin. The portrait is of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, president during the dark times of the Great Depression, and the head of a administration that set up many programs during the 1930s that were of immediate help to people like my grandmother and grandfather.
They remembered the help in vivid detail, and talked of it—and of FDR—for decades after.
It was not only the “alphabet” programs of the Depression (WPA, NRA, CCC, etc, etc) that made FDR so memorable, of course. Franklin Roosevelt was president during almost all of World War II, with all that fact suggests. Roosevelt was the one American president to be elected a 3rd time (and a 4th!). When he died in 1945, FDR was the only president a very substantial portion of the population had ever known.
Yet with all of this, President Roosevelt was celebrated only on the humble “dime,” the American 10-cent piece? The answer is “yes”—and in that particular fact is much of the charm of this coin.
FDR had been crippled in the 1920s by what was diagnosed as polio. He could not walk without help.
During his lifetime, FDR had founded and supported an anti-polio charity that raised money though a charitable event called the “March of Dimes.” Dime by dime, millions of dollars were donated to fight polio.
The “Roosevelt” dime was introduced in 1946, the year after FDR’s death, and continues to circulate today. (The coin has outlasted my grandparents, sad to say.) But the Roosevelt dime—small and humble as it is—has accomplished its purpose beautifully. The last known case of polio in the U.S. occurred in 1979. The Americas, North and South, were declared polio-free in 1994.
v.
FDR's dime
- Arminius
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Re: FDR's dime
I also like this "diving" into the history of a common coin very much.
Thanks for your story!
A.
Thanks for your story!
A.
meine Zahlungsmittel-Dateien
Ich lasse mich durch Ansichts- und Glaubensfragen nicht in einen Empörungsmodus bringen.
Ich lasse mich durch Ansichts- und Glaubensfragen nicht in einen Empörungsmodus bringen.
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Re: FDR's dime
Thanks for the comments—it’s always good to be reminded that there are collectors of like mind out there! (I looked at several of your notes, Arminius, and have been enjoying your contributions elsewhere in the Forum. Have to confess that I borrowed some of your info on the Karl Lingner token for my own notebook.)
One other note on the Roosevelt Dime. There was great hurry to complete the new coin and get it introduced, so it’s possible the design wasn’t fully vetted. At any rate, the designer’s initials (JS) under Roosevelt’s portrait were said by some—in the somewhat overheated atmosphere of the time—to stand for “Joseph Stalin.”
A couple of years later, a more cautious John R. Sinnock put all three of his initials (JRS) on his new design, the Franklin half dollar of 1948-1963. Problem solved.
But then came the frenzied effort to introduce the new Kennedy half dollar of 1964—and yet more trouble with designer’s initials.
v.
One other note on the Roosevelt Dime. There was great hurry to complete the new coin and get it introduced, so it’s possible the design wasn’t fully vetted. At any rate, the designer’s initials (JS) under Roosevelt’s portrait were said by some—in the somewhat overheated atmosphere of the time—to stand for “Joseph Stalin.”
A couple of years later, a more cautious John R. Sinnock put all three of his initials (JRS) on his new design, the Franklin half dollar of 1948-1963. Problem solved.
But then came the frenzied effort to introduce the new Kennedy half dollar of 1964—and yet more trouble with designer’s initials.
v.
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