Franklin Roosevelt Dime

In 1921, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with a bout of polio that left him partially paralyzed, there were no organizations to lend support. Although Roosevelt had the money for the very best treatments for himself he realized that there were thousands of others who did not. Also, at the time, there was no known cure for polio. In 1938, President Roosevelt helped establish the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (which later became known as the March of Dimes). This foundation was created to help care for polio patients and to help fund research to find a cure. Funding from the March of Dimes helped Jonas Salk discover a vaccine for polio. Soon after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in 1945, the public started sending letters to the United States Treasury Department requesting that Roosevelt's portrait be placed on a coin. The dime seemed the most appropriate coin because of Roosevelt's ties to the March of Dimes. The new dime was released to the public on Roosevelt's birthday, January 30, 1946. The portrait of FDR was created in 1944 by Dr. Selma Burke.