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It may not always be recognized as an important milestone, but the United States has often observed the 50th anniversary of a coin’s design. The best such example is, of course, the Lincoln cent. First issued in 1909, the Lincoln wheat cent got an update in 1959 on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. In that year, a reverse design featuring the Lincoln Memorial was first released. When the Lincoln cent had aged another 50 years, in 2009, it got another update, this time with four new reverse designs featuring snapshots of Lincoln’s life. The Roosevelt dime was similarly honored on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. First issued in 1946, the Roosevelt dime honored President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had died in 1945 while serving his fourth consecutive term as president. The dime was an especially fitting tribute to Roosevelt, as in his adult life he had been a leader of the March of Dimes’ fundraising efforts to combat polio. Although originally issued in silver, the dime underwent no significant design changes throughout its entire 50 years of workman-like service. The only noteworthy design change was the movement of the mintmark to the coin’s obverse in 1968. In 1996, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Roosevelt dime, the West Point Mint was chosen to strike a special dime issue. The coin of course shows its usual austere design, except the W mintmark sits just above the numeral 6 in the date. It is the only dime to bear the West Point mintmark. This coin was not released into circulation, but instead was included as part of the 1996 Mint set, the Uncirculated coinage set sold by the U.S. Mint. The only way to get this coin was as part of the Mint set. A total of 1,457,000 sets were sold, which is correspondingly also the mintage figure of the 1996-W Roosevelt dime. This low mintage figure gives the 1996-W Roosevelt dime the lowest mintage of any Mint State Roosevelt, including the 1946 to 1964 silver issues. In fact, the so-called key date of the silver series, the 1949-S, has a mintage of more than 13 million pieces! But the 1996-W Roosevelt dime is an anomaly in many ways. It is the only coin struck in copper-nickel-clad composition to bear the W mintmark. All other coins with this mintmark are precious-metal coins struck in silver, gold, or platinum. It is also the only commemorative dime ever issued in the United States. Like most Mint set coins of the era, these dimes received very modest special handling and therefore can show contact marks from knocking against other coins and machine-sorting and packaging. Although most are gem Uncirculated, a disparity of quality does exist among them.

Garrett, Jeff; Schechter, Scott; Bressett, Kenneth; Bowers, Q. David (2011-03-04). 100 Greatest US Modern Coins (Kindle Locations 1389-1410). Whitman Publishing. Kindle Edition.