Little-known stories of the Roosevelt dime

[Dan Hughes]

The Chief Engraver of the United States Mint, John Sinnock, was asked to do a rush-job design of a new dime to honor Franklin D. Roosevelt after the president died unexpectedly 1n 1945.

Sinnock said he based his coin on a Roosevelt medal he had designed four years earlier.

But others believe he used the design of an African-American sculptress named Selma Burke, who had been commissioned to design a Roosevelt plaque in 1944.

The design on the left is Sinnock's original, and the one on the right is Burke's. What do you think?

And why in the world would a rumor start that the "JS" below Roosevelt's neck stood for someone much more sinister than John Sinnock?

The answers are in episode #133 of In the Treasure Corner, at In the Corner with Dan Hughes.

 

[scott9050]

Looks like Sinnock's original design reversed.