#john sinnock

[mudwerks]

Who Really Designed the American Dime?

The controversy that has long roiled the coin world.

Selma Burke won a competition to create a relief sculpture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1943

[historysisco]

Today’s Money Monday post has to do with the 10-cent Roosevelt Dime coin. Now I never made the connection as to why President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is on the dime though it really should have been pretty obvious. According to the post January 31 The Roosevelt Dime on page 32 of the American Patriot’s Almanac by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb 

Since January 1946, the U.S. dimes have carried the image of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The U.S. Mint issued the coin less than a year after Roosevelt’s death. Before 1946, U.S. dimes carried images of female figures representing Liberty.

The Roosevelt Dime was issued in part to honor FDR’s efforts in establishing the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (Now known as the March of Dimes), which was founded to help defeat polio. Roosevelt and others urged Americans to send dimes to the foundation to fight the dreaded disease.

The back of the Roosevelt Dime shows three emblems: an olive branch, a torch and an oak branch. The olive branch (left of the torch) stands for peace. The torch, which is an image of the one held by the Statue of Liberty, stands for freedom. The oak branch stands for safety, security and strength.

Soon after the coin’s release, controversy erupted when people noticed the tiny letters “JS” beneath Roosevelt’s neck. Rumors spread that a Communist agent at the Mint had placed the letters there to honor the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. In truth, the initials belong to John Sinnock, the coin’s designer