Roosevelt Dime

The Roosevelt Dime is the ten-cent coin that has served the United States since 1946, named for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose left-facing profile fills the obverse. The reverse displays a lit torch flanked by an olive branch and an oak branch, symbols of liberty, peace, and strength. The coin pictured here is dated 1965.

The 1965 date marks a turning point: it is a copper-nickel clad piece rather than the 90 percent silver used from 1946 through 1964. Clad dimes are made of outer layers of copper-nickel bonded to a pure copper core, which is visible as a reddish stripe on the coin's edge. From 1965 onward this composition became the standard for circulating dimes.

As an ordinary clad coin still made and spent today, the Roosevelt Dime is one of the most common U.S. coins in existence. It is collected as an inexpensive, complete-able series, with silver dates, proofs, and high-grade examples drawing the most collector attention.

The Roosevelt Dime was introduced in 1946, months after Franklin D. Roosevelt's death, to honor the president and his association with the March of Dimes campaign against polio. The design was created by U.S. Mint Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock, whose initials JS appear at the base of Roosevelt's neck.

Through 1964 the dime was struck in 90 percent silver. Rising silver prices and coin shortages led Congress to pass the Coinage Act of 1965, which removed silver from circulating dimes and quarters and replaced it with copper-nickel clad. The 1965-dated coin shown here is among the first of this new clad composition, and to discourage hoarding the Mint initially struck 1965 coins without mint marks.

The clad Roosevelt Dime has continued essentially unchanged in design ever since, making it one of the longest-running U.S. coin types. Silver production later resumed only for special collector proof and commemorative sets, while the copper-nickel clad version remains the everyday circulating dime.

Identify the obverse by Roosevelt's bust facing left, with LIBERTY along the left rim, IN GOD WE TRUST below the chin, and the date to the lower right. The reverse shows a central lit torch, an olive branch to the left and an oak branch to the right, with E PLURIBUS UNUM across the field and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and ONE DIME around the rim. The pictured coin is dated 1965.

The clad dime measures 17.9 mm across, weighs about 2.27 grams, and has a reeded (grooved) edge. The surest test of a clad versus silver dime is the edge: a clad coin shows a distinct copper-colored stripe between silver-white outer faces, while a pre-1965 silver dime looks solid silver all the way through. A silver dime also weighs slightly more, about 2.5 grams.

Mint marks, when present, sit on the reverse near the base of the torch on 1946–1964 issues, and on the obverse above the date beginning in 1968. Coins dated 1965 through 1967, including this one, carry no mint mark at all, which is normal for those transitional years.

Circulated clad Roosevelt Dimes from 1965 onward are extremely common and generally worth only face value. The 1965 issue is a clad coin with no precious-metal content, so it does not carry the melt value that pre-1965 silver dimes do. Everyday examples are collected mainly to fill an album rather than for monetary gain.

Premiums appear in specific situations: uncirculated coins with full original luster, proof strikes from collector sets, and pieces graded with a Full Bands designation (sharp separation on the horizontal torch bands) can be worth more. Certain error and variety coins, and any accidental 1965-dated silver strikes, are rare and valuable exceptions best confirmed by an expert.

Because the coin is so plentiful, condition is what separates a face-value piece from a collectible one. Well-preserved, spot-free examples and certified high-grade coins command the strongest premiums, while worn circulated dimes remain pocket change.