Owner Comments:
On March 4, 1933, with the nation in the midst of an economic depression, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, popularly known as FDR, became president of the United States. Immediately, FDR went to work putting the nation back to work and began what would be the longest tenure of any president at four elected terms. As the United States was recovering from the effects of the depression, the nation suddenly found itself at war. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor and a day later FDR delivered his famous “a date which will live in infamy” speech. Unfortunately, FDR would not live to see the end of World War II and died of a stroke shortly before the end of war, on April 4, 1945. Soon afterward with strong public support, legislation to replace the Mercury Dime with a bust of FDR passed through congress. Earlier in his presidency, on January 3, 1938, FDR founded the “March of Dimes”, an organization dedicated to helping children with birth defects and childhood diseases. This makes the Roosevelt Dime an appropriate memorial to honor President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whom many believed to be suffering the effects of polio. Afterwards, on January 30, 1946, as the nation celebrated the end of World War II and mourned the death of their president, on what would have been FDR’s 64th birthday, the Roosevelt Dime entered circulation and continues to this day. This MS-67 FT, 1958-D Roosevelt Dime is also in my 1958 birth year set.