January 2024 marks the 78th anniversary of the iconic Roosevelt dime, first struck in January 1946. It was in many ways a controversial design, even to the present day. A few years ago charges were being made that the head of Roosevelt had been plagiarized from a well-known artist.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, died suddenly at Warm Springs, Ga., in April 1945. For 25 years, he had suffered from the effects of polio and was able to walk only with extreme difficulty; braces and crutches were a painful necessity. Because of this debilitating illness, F.D.R had promoted the March of Dimes organization, which gathered money to fight the dreaded disease.
Someone in the new administration, perhaps President Harry S Truman himself, came up with the idea of honoring F.D.R. by putting his portrait on the dime. This would not only commemorate Roosevelt, but draw public attention to a deserving cause, the fight against polio.
The reasons given above were at least the rationales for the change, but one of the key incentives was purely political. With F.D.R.’s portrait on the coinage, the public would constantly be reminded of his administration, and high-ranking politicians no doubt thought that some of the glory would rub off at the ballot box in due
