Description

The dime is a ten cent coin, one tenth of a United States dollar, labeled formally as "one dime". The denomination was first authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792. The dime is the smallest in diameter and is the thinnest of all U.S. coins currently minted for circulation. The word "dime" comes from the French word "dîme", meaning "tithe" or "tenth part", from the Latin decima.

Soon after the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, legislation was introduced by Virginia Congressman Ralph H. Daughton that called for the replacement of the Mercury dime with one bearing Roosevelt's image. The dime was chosen to honor Roosevelt partly due to his efforts in the founding of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (later renamed the March of Dimes), which originally raised money for polio research and to aid victims of the disease and their families. The public had been urged to send in a dime to the Foundation, and by Roosevelt's death, the Foundation was already popularly known as the "March of Dimes."

Due to the limited amount of time available to design the new coin, the Roosevelt dime was the first regular-issue U.S. coin designed by a US Mint employee in more than 40 years. Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock was chosen. The dime was released to the public on January 30, 1946, which would have been Roosevelt's 64th birthday. Sinnock's design placed his initials ("JS") at the base of Roosevelt's neck, on the coin's obverse. This later led to the rumor that "JS" were the initials of the Communist leader of Russia, Joseph Stalin, placed there by a Soviet agent in the mint. The Mint quickly issued a statement denying this, confirming that the initials were indeed Sinnock's.

In 1965 the composition of the dime changed from 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper to a clad "sandwich" of pure copper inner layer between two outer layers of cupronickel (75% copper, 25% nickel) alloy.

Since 1946 the Roosevelt dime has been minted every year. From 1968, the mint marks have appeared above the date. None were used in 1965–67, and Philadelphia did not show a mint mark until 1980 (in 1982, an error left the "P" off a small number of dimes, which are now valuable). To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the design, the 1996 mint sets included a "W" mint marked dime made at the West Point Mint. The mint mark is located on the obverse of the coin, near the lower right side above the date.

In 2005-2010 Satin Finish Roosevelt Dimes were sold to the public. A Satin Finish coin is a coin which is not released into circulation by the United States Mint. Instead, the coins are sold in Mint Sets only. All Satin Finish coins are struck on special sandblasted planchets, also known as burnished planchets. The coins are then struck under higher pressure than circulation strike coins. Satin Finish coins are also handled with lots of care throughout the entire production process and finally inserted in to United States Mint Sets.

Alone among currently circulating U.S. coins, the Roosevelt dime's basic design has remained unchanged since its introduction in 1946, other than mint mark changes as outlined above.