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."

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. Starting in 1992, the U.S. Mint reintroduced silver coins in its annual collectors sets. This included a 90 percent silver proof Roosevelt Dime, Washington Quarter and Kennedy Half Dollar.

In 2015 the United States Mint released March of Dimes Special Set. The set contains the proof version of the 2015 March of Dimes Commemorative Silver Dollar along with two specially produced Roosevelt Dimes: 2015-P Reverse Proof and 2015-W Proof. The 2015-P Silver Reverse Proof Roosevelt Dime is the first time that a coin of the series been produced with a reverse proof finish. The 2015-W Silver Proof Roosevelt Dime represents the first time that the West Point Mint has struck a dime in proof format or 90% silver composition.