Roosevelt dime: The Story Behind Its JS Initials
The letters JS on the Roosevelt dime belong to John R. Sinnock, the Mint's chief engraver. They sit beside the cutoff of the president's bust, to the left of the date. When the coins appeared, relations with the USSR were deteriorating, and a rumor linked the initials to Joseph Stalin. Some people alleged that a communist sympathizer had placed them there. The rumor reached Congress, prompting the Mint to issue press releases denying the connection. Claims of a secret agreement at the Yalta Conference persisted into the 1950s. Sinnock's Franklin half dollar, released in 1948 with the initials JRS, revived the controversy.
The choice of a Roosevelt dime followed the president's death on April 12, 1945. He had suffered from polio since 1921 and had helped found and strongly supported the March of Dimes. Louisiana Representative James Hobson Morrison introduced a bill for the coin on May 3. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. announced the replacement of the Mercury dime on May 17. The Mercury design had been minted since 1916, meeting the legal requirement of at least 25 years before a change without congressional action. The congressional committees responsible for coinage were informed, even though a new law was unnecessary.
Preparing the Roosevelt dime fell to Sinnock, who had held his position since 1925. His assistant Gilroy Roberts, later chief engraver, did much of the preparation. In early October 1945, Sinnock submitted plaster models to Assistant Mint Director F. Leland Howard, who sent them to the Commission of Fine Arts. The initial reverse showed a hand holding a torch and sprigs of olive and oak. Alternative sketches included scrolls bearing the Four Freedoms, representations of Liberty, and the War Memorial Opera House commemorating the United Nations Conference. Commission chairman Gilmore Clarke rejected the portrait models but preferred a reverse that omitted the hand.
Sinnock met with sculptor and commission member Lee Lawrie, then submitted a revised portrait. Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross sent photographs to the commission, which rejected the revision and proposed a competition among five artists. Ross declined because the Mint faced pressure to have coins ready for the March of Dimes campaign in January 1946. Treasury Secretary Fred Vinson also rejected the models near the end of December. Sinnock then exchanged the positions of the date and LIBERTY, making room for a larger head. Lawrie and Vinson approved. Ross authorized production without waiting for a full commission meeting while Sinnock was ill.
The finished portrait side bears LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. On the reverse, a torch represents liberty, an olive sprig represents peace, and an oak sprig symbolizes strength and independence. E PLURIBUS UNUM stretches across the field, with the country's name and the coin's value surrounding the design. The reverse symbolizes the victorious end of World War II. Artistic responses varied: numismatist Mark Benvenuto suggested that Roosevelt's image looked more natural than other presidential coin portraits, resembling an art medal. Walter Breen favored aspects of the preceding Mercury design, while art historian Cornelius Vermeule praised the new coin's style.
The Roosevelt dime was first struck at the Philadelphia Mint on January 19, 1946. Its circulation debut came on January 30, the date that would have been Roosevelt's 64th birthday. The planned February 5 release had been advanced to match the anniversary. Sinnock became the first chief engraver credited with designing a new circulating U.S. coin since Charles E. Barber's designs first appeared in 1892. Reports followed of vending machines rejecting the dime, but the Mint made no changes in response. Later design adjustments included small alterations to Roosevelt's hair and a move of the mint mark from the reverse to the portrait side.
The Coinage Act of 1965 brought a change from silver to clad metal: copper nickel surrounding a pure copper core. Coins dated 1965 through 1967 carried no mint marks as the Mint tried to discourage hoarding. Marks returned in 1968 at Denver and on San Francisco proof coins. Philadelphia began marking dimes with P in 1980. Starting in 1981, adjustments lowered the relief of Roosevelt's profile to extend the life of coinage dies. San Francisco began making silver dimes for annual silver proof sets in 1992. In 2019, those silver coins changed from .900 to .999 fineness.
Collector editions added other distinctions to the Roosevelt dime. West Point had struck unmarked dimes intermittently during the 1970s and 1980s to meet demand. In 1996, it used W for coins celebrating the design's 50th anniversary. Just under a million and a half were made for that year's collector mint set rather than circulation. A special March of Dimes set in 2015 included dimes from West Point and Philadelphia and a silver dollar depicting Roosevelt and polio vaccine developer Dr. Jonas Salk. Among production errors, Philadelphia dimes released in 1982 without P may sell for $50 to $75.