The History of Roosevelt Dimes

There remains some controversy in this area to this day. The designs for the final model submitted by Sinnock bore an uncanny resemblance to a bas-relief bust that had been gifted to the president five years earlier. It is very close to an exact copy of this original portrait. Numismatic scholars to this day debate if the coin may actually have been designed by Selma Burke, creator of this bas-relief, with John Ray Sinnock taking the credit.

This was the first coin to be issued to depict a real person. Others bore an image of the Lady Liberty, or the winged Lady Liberty called "Mercury" shown on the first dime. The first issue of the coin created a backlash from the post-war, McCarthy era paranoid and projection-happy public. Accusations came in that the "J.S." stamped to identify the designer actually stood for and demonstrated a secret Treasury Department allegiance to Joseph Stalin.

Regardless of the unsubstantiated nature of the rumors, the fear generated by the notion of Communist influence had a big effect, and the next silver coin issued that was designed by Sinnock included his middle initial "R". Even when this was done, the US Treasury Department received letters asking how they had learned Stalin's middle name (which in reality was Vissarianovich).

Even with this additional measure, the US Treasury Mint Department was forced to release a statement identifying the creator of the silver dime coin, and refute the claims of "Reds" having infiltrated the Treasury Mint Department. The Franklin Half Dollar was also designed by Sinnock and was also given this paranoid response. Apparently rumors circulated widely that a Russian spy had infiltrated the US Treasury Mint, and had subversively succeeded at getting Stalin's initials onto our coinage.

The first Roosevelt Dime was 90 percent silver and ten percent copper. The high-silver content dimes were available from 1946 through 1964, when the metal percentages were changed by the US Treasury Department. The dimes had a reeded edge, which made it easy to see if anyone had tried to shave off any of the silver. They weighed 2.50 grams.

In 1965 the Treasury Department decided to change the percentage of metals within the coins to 75 percent pure copper in the middle with 25 percent nickel, bonded onto the copper center. This is the combination still used today. These coins weigh in at 2.27 grams. They are 17.9 mm in diameter and the edges are still reeded for the sake of long-standing tradition. They are minted in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver and West Point.

Some hub changes have occurred over time. The first occurred in 1946 when it was noticed that some of the obverse designs were indistinct. The signature initials could not be clearly viewed. Some other modifications occurred in '64 and '81, and since then new hubs are introduced frequently. The wear that results is heavy, causing a need for repeated die sinkings. They appear almost annually but are difficult to detect without professional training.

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