Roosevelt Dimes 1946 - present

Who really intended the Roosevelt Dime? Was it the U. S. Mint's Chief Engraver, John Ray Sinnock, whose initials figure on the coins first minted in 1946, or was it sculptor Selma Burke, whose bas-relief submitted as a gift to the President five days previous bears eerie resemblance to the portrayal actually worn? This irksome inquiry has been raised repeatedly during novel time, and it ashes a subject of ponder among numismatic scholars.

What is known for certain is that the American open in 1945 was clamoring for some cenotaph to their fallen chief, whose surface had come just as he was about to enjoy a musical victory after existence of struggle and disquiet. As World War II was looming its end in April of that year, Franklin Delano Roosevelt breathed his last, and the gratis world mourned. The people's only four-tenure president died at 63, aged afar his days by twin burdens of the maximum lucrative depression in the people's narration and the most devastating war of all time.

Within the Treasury Department, procedure were fast laid for the introduction of a new coin to prize Roosevelt. Since the deferred president had been afflicted with polio, or infantile paralysis as it was then generally known, it seemed only relaxed to place his depiction on the dime. This humbled coin was symbolic of the struggle to end polio through the "March of Dimes" fundraising operation, an envisage begun during Roosevelt's first term.

In a trip with its 40-year tradition of enlisting remote artists in the plan of new coins, the Mint assigned this brief to Chief Engraver Sinnock. His initial models were submitted to the national Commission of Fine Arts by Acting Mint Director Leland Howard on October 12, 1945. The Commission unwanted them on very exclusive argument and recommended an invitational competition for the outline of the new dime, naming five accomplished sculptors as candidates. Given the allowable time casing (the coins had to be keen for arise when the 1946 March of Dimes campaign kicked off on the belatedly president's birthday, January 30), this suggestion was abruptly rejected by Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross.

Instead, Sinnock went back to his workshop to make the beloved improvements. His small rule of Roosevelt with the now forward replaced large mottos, larger study with a miniscule IN GOD WE TRUST. As it fit the vacant opening, LIBERTY remained in large lettering but was moved to the left from its former opinion promptly above the portrayal. The year, and Sinnock's initials JS, were utterly small and appeared below the truncation of Roosevelt's stem. The repeal featured an upright torch, symbolizing openness, flanked by twigs of jade and oak, respectively denoting quiet and victory. The motto E PLURIBUS UNUM was ineptly spaced between these elements in a release line. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and ONE DIME were accepted in arcs around the fringe, separated from each other by ornamental dots. At the eleventh hour, these revised models were approved on January 8, 1946 by the Commission of Fine Arts and Treasury Secretary Fred Vinson. Accompanying this announcement was an order from Director Ross to begin the production of hubs and dies immediately and to begin penny as presently as workable.

As they would decades later with the claims raised by Selma Burke, John Sinnock's initials JS on the dime provided controversy from the outset. Americans, newly awakened to the situation-war hazard posed by the Soviet Union, were opening to invent Communists behind every tree. A persistent tale expanded that the initials JS were those of Soviet organizer Joseph Stalin. As absurd as this may seem today, enough The possibility alarmed americans of Communist change that the Mint was affected to originate an invoice identifying the coin's architect and refuting the claims of "Reds" being harbored within its respected bulwark.

Coined by the millions every year from 1946 forward, the Roosevelt Dime chain has no unusual dates, and the only challenge in completing collection mendacity in locating scarce varieties or form rarities. Several teenager hub changes have occurred, the first appearing in 1946 when it was realized that parts of the obverse design were indistinct, plus the controversial initials JS. Other modifications are noted during 1964 and 1981. Since then, new hubs have been introduced frequently. This is to compensate for the costume which fallout from the frequent die sinkings vital to meet modern strain for additional change. These new hubs develop almost annually, but the changes are so feeble as to go unnoticed excepting by specialists.

Roosevelt dimes have been coined at three mints: Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco. From 1946 through 1964, the mintmark place was just to the left of the source of the torch. From 1968 onward, mintmarks appear above the year. Those struck in Philadelphia carried no mintmark pending a letter P was introduced creation in 1980. Roosevelt dimes coined at the mints in Denver and San Francisco have forever been identified by words D and S, respectively, except during the time 1965-67 when these mintmarks were gone. All three mints made dimes for circulation through 1955; in March of that year, San Francisco ceased the minting of coins, and for the next ten years its mint was worn exclusively as an attempt staff. The other two mints nonstop lonely pending 1965, when the West Coast facility was reactivated in a power to overcome a nationwide coin famine. Silver dimes square 1964 and carrying no mintmark were struck in San Francisco during the last months of 1965.

Although there are no singular dates in the Roosevelt dime chain and it is certainly fulfilled in mint confusion, some issues contain notable premiums, particularly in grades MS-65 and higher. These embrace all the 1948 and 1949 dimes, 1950-S and 1951-S. Despite their, much inferior to average mintages, the three issues square 1955 were commonly hoarded and pass only modest premiums. The only customary-gush coin appeal more than its silver gold help in circulated grades is 1949-S. Points to trial for costume on the Roosevelt dime include the highpoints of FDR's fleece and cheek and the flame and horizontal bands of the torch.

Proofs were coined at the Philadelphia Mint launch in 1950, and this date through 1955 are all worth more than subsequent proofs. Coinage of proofs was hovering with the adoption of copper-nickel clothed dimes in 1965. No proofs were coined with the dates 1965, 1966 and 1967, but "exclusive mint sets" were coined at the San Francisco Mint that have a prooflike class to their surfaces. These are not as gallantly struck as sincere proofs. In addition, less concern was full in their behavior, and they frequently display nicks and abrasion, even when found in their inventive packaging. Proof currency resumed in 1968, this time at the San Francisco Mint. The S-Mint dimes square 1968 to date are factual proofs course the letter S and were made exclusively for retailing to collectors. Since 1992, these have been coined in both the conventional clothed composition and at the old silver everyday. The Philadelphia and Denver Mint persist to yield copper-nickel clad dimes for common circulation.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 17.9 millimeters Weight: 2.50 grams (silver) Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Net Weight: .07234 scrap wholesome silver Weight: 2.27 grams (CuNi-clad) Composition: .750 copper.250 nickel bonded to unmixed copper Edge: Reeded

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Tomaska, Rick Jerry, Cameo and Brilliant Proof Coinage of the 1950 to 1970 Era, R & I Publications, Encinitas, CA, 1991. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 48th Edition. Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1994.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Franklin Half Dollars 1948-1963

In 1948, World War II had given way to an uneasy calm-a "Cold War," as presidential adviser Bernard Baruch so aptly named the new climate of international tension. The year also witnessed the killing of baseball legend Babe Ruth, the birth of the State of Israel and, with his presidential selection commotion of Thomas E. Dewey, a new lease on life in the White House for Harry S Truman.

In 1948, an important change took place in United States change as well, when the Franklin half money made its entrance. Its introduction finished the conversion of U.S. coin designs from allegorical figures to portraits of notorious Americans. It also rang down the curtain on an era that many involve as the blond age of U. S. Currency art. The Walking Liberty half bucked, last struck in 1947, was the decisive precious-metal coin enduring in production from the early 20th-century interlude that spawned the "Mercury" dime, Standing Liberty area and Saint-Gaudens magnify eagle.

Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross had contemplated a coin reverence Benjamin Franklin ever since a U.S. Mint nobility ready in Franklin's honor in 1933 by John R. Sinnock, the Mint's chief sculptor-engraver. Evidence suggests that Ross might have made the change in the early 1940s, when the half dough's conceive, worn for the statutory lowest of 25 living, became eligible for replacement. Although escalating production burden occasioned by World War II postponed Ross' strategy, she showed her enthusiasm for the predict by directing Sinnock to invent a Franklin coin on a contingency source. It would be hard to criticize Director Ross for her variety of Ben Franklin as a U.S. money focus. Of all the Founding Fathers, Franklin very possible enjoyed the most build among his contemporaries, not only in this country but also abroad. He was fairly legendary as an imprinter, publisher, author, inventor, scientist and moderator, and he played a crucial task in ration the colonies return their independence by securing crucial aid from France.

In an oration at the promotion of the Franklin half cash, Ross recalled the people had urged her to place Franklin's likeness on the cent because he was identified so narrowly with the guideline "A money saved is twopence vindicate" (often misquoted as "A currency saved is a penny earned"). Ross explained her catalog of the half buck: "You will permit, I trust, that the fifty-cent part, being bigger and of silver, lends itself much better to the production of an impressive result," she declared.

Sinnock's picture of Franklin, modeled after a bust by 18th-century sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, is bold and cleanse, contrasting sharply with the clever, complete depiction of Miss Liberty on the Walking Liberty coin it replaced. LIBERTY is extolled above the right-facing portrayal, IN GOD WE TRUST below and the time to Franklin's right. Tucked below Franklin's shoulder are Sinnock's initials, JRS.

The Liberty Belled on the repeal made sense as a compliment to Franklin, since both have become narrowly identified not only with the populace's birth but also with the city of Philadelphia. Three inscriptions are arranged around the timer in the same minus serif tailor used on the frontage: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is above, HALF DOLLAR below and E PLURIBUS UNUM, in much lesser script, to the left. To the right of the timer is a frail-looking eagle. This had been mandatory by law on the half cash since 1792 and was reaffirmed by the Coinage Act of 1873, which mandated the post of an eagle on every U.S. silver coin superior to the dime. The eagle was added by Gilroy Roberts, who finished work on the coin following Sinnock's fatality in 1947.

Understandably, the central Commission of Fine Arts (an advisory body) took deliver with the eagle's size. Oddly enough, they also disapproved of displaying the crack in the Liberty Bell, arguing that "to show this might charge to puns and to statements derogatory to United States money." Although the Commission recommended a blueprint competition, the Treasury Department approved Sinnock's models lacking change.

Years later, Sinnock was accused of modeling his report of the Liberty Bell, lacking prim belief, on a sketch by performer John Frederick Lewis. The robbery first occurred in 1926, when Sinnock apparently used the sketch in fashioning his purpose for the commemorative half money marking the sesquicentennial of U.S. independence. His Franklin half buck overturn figure was patterned, in turn, on that earlier work. Numismatic allusion books now praise Lewis tardily for his role.

Although Franklin half dollar mintages were modest by novel-day standards, the string contains no issues that are particularly erratic. The production lowed headland came in 1953, when the Philadelphia Mint struck just under 2.8 million examples; the peak occurred in 1963, when the Denver Mint made just over 67 million. Franklin halves also were minted in San Francisco. On fork-mint issues, the D or S mintmark appears above the bell on the contrary. Total mintage for the chain, with proofs, was almost 498 million coins.

Because they are so bounteous, in circulated situation most Franklin halves take little or no premium above their bullion amount. Several dates are subtle, however, in the upper mint-national grades, especially with effusive defined "bell defenses" near the Liberty Bell's foot. Although the relatively low mintage 1949-D and 1950-D issues are considered "key" dates in the chain, some coins with higher mintages, while customary in lower grades, also command impressive premiums in Mint State-65 and above. These coins routinely came with weak strikes, and the paucity of "ornaments" is compounded by the statement that few were wisely saved. Dates in this grouping involve 1960-D, 1961-P and D and 1962-P and D. Proofs were issued every year from 1950 through 1963 as part of yearly evidence sets: over 15.8 million were made. Small numbers of proofs were struck with cameo disparity, an attractive frozen outward on the campaign contrasted with a polished mirror-like appearance in the fields. These cameo coins can beget substantial premiums over the prices of ordinary proofs without such contrast.

A full set of Franklin halves consists of 35 different question strikes and 14 different proofs. Because it is so compact and certainly affordable in minus-than-unspoiled grades, the series is widely serene by year and mint. Those with deeper pockets who ardor a challenge seek to assemble dating-and-mint sets in MS-65 and above or collections of high-grade proof Franklins with resonant cameo contrast. Points on the design to first show garb are Franklin's cheek, shoulder and fleece behind the ear and the lettering and ranks on the Liberty Bell.

Franklin half dollars were made for just 16 time. The series was cut succinct at the end of 1963, when John F. Kennedy's shocking assassination led to the concept of a new the dollar memorializing the martyred head.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 30.6 millimeters Weight: 12.50 grams composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net load: .36169 degree innocent silver

BIBLOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Ehrmantraut, Jack, Jr., An Analysis of Gem Franklin Half Dollars, Five Seasons Publishers, Hiawatha, IA, 1983. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Tomaska, Rick, The Complete Guide to Franklin Half Dollars, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1997. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.