I mostly post my historical stories over in the US Commemorative Coins area, but this one seems more appropriate here.US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt {FDR) died on April 12, 1945 of a cerebral hemorrhage, after a long battle with polio; he was 63 years old when he died. Calls to honor Roosevelt by placing his likeness on a US coin came almost immediately. A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on May 3 by Representative James Hobson Morrison (D-LA); a similar bill was introduced in the Senate on May 7 by Senator Harley Martin Kilgore (D-WV).
Each of the bills called for the replacement of the circulating "Mercury" dime with a dime that featured the portrait of FDR on its obverse. The House bill left the reverse design up to the Director of the Mint/Secretary of the Treasury. The Senate bill went a step further and specified a reverse design "symbolic or descriptive of the Four Freedoms." (Roosevelt introduced the Four Freedoms during his State of the Union Address on January 6, 1941, The Freedoms are: Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Freedom from want. Freedom from fear.)
Just days after the bills were introduced, during a press conference on May 17, 1945, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgentheau, Jr. announced that a dime carrying a portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt would soon replace the "Mercury Head" dime and should be ready for distribution in early 1946. Striking of the new dime began in January 1946, and its first release came on January 30, 1946 - what would have been FDR's 64th birthday.
On November 26, 1945, many months after the Treasury had announced its decision to issue a FDR dime, a third bill was introduced in Congress. It was introduced in the House by Representative by Ralph Hunter Daughton (D-VA); it was a duplicate of the bill introduced in May by Representative Morrison. Records of the bill note that it was introduced "By Request" but no requester name is listed. As the new dime was well under development and on its way to production by November (not to mention that it didn't need Congressional intervention), the bill served no practical purpose. I surmise it was a symbolic gesture meant to honor FDR more than anything else.
As US Law allowed the Treasury Department to change the designs on each coin of the nation once every 25 years without Congress' approval, the decision to replace the Winged Liberty Head/"Mercury" dime with one that featured FDR did not need passage of any of the bills introduced in Congress. Thus, all three bills are just interesting minor footnotes in the coin's history.
1946 Roosevelt Dime
(Image Credit: Image courtesy of PCGS CoinFacts. https://www.PCGS.com/coinfacts/coin...c-fb/85082.)
For other of my posts, mostly about commemorative coins and medals, see:
Commems Collection. 
Posted 04/05/2022 2:02 pm
