# What president is on the dime? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 10, 2000, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368 "2000-10-10T04:26:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/1 "2000-10-10T04:26:14Z")
I know that sounds like a stupid question, but I can’t remember, and I don’t have a dime to figure it out… dang it. Any help here would be cool… ---
**Author:** ![2nd\_Law](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f475e1/32.png) [@2nd\_Law](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2nd_Law)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/2 "2000-10-10T04:29:24Z")
Franklin Roosevelt ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/3 "2000-10-10T04:36:27Z")
It’s [Roosevelt](http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating_coins/index.cfm?action=circulating_faq#anchor13). ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/4 "2000-10-10T13:41:25Z")
If it’s Woodrow Wilson, however, you have a passage to a Jack Finney universe in your hand. Please send it to me with the utmost alacrity. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/5 "2000-10-10T14:40:59Z")
It was Truman who said “The buck stops here,” but it’s F. D. Roosevelt who stopped on the dime. ---
**Author:** ![TampaFlyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@TampaFlyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TampaFlyer)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/6 "2000-10-10T22:04:17Z")
A friend of mine likes to ask people if they’d like to see a U.S. destroyer, & when they say yes, he shows them the front of a dime. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/7 "2000-10-10T22:31:00Z")
I actually knew for a fact (heh) since early childhood that it was Eisenhower-- I have no idea where that came from, but it stuck. And about a month ago a coin collecting friend corrected me and I was floored. Re: the previous message, I’d like to say that the idea of Reagan on the penny (something that is in the works, apparently) horrifies me, but now I’ve got a joke set up for it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/8 "2000-10-10T22:33:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by M.K. \* > **I actually knew for a fact (heh) since early childhood that it was Eisenhower-- I have no idea where that came from, but it stuck. And about a month ago a coin collecting friend corrected me and I was floored.** Eisenhower used to be on the “silver” dollar. Maybe that’s where you “remembered” Eisenhower from. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Bobort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bobort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobort)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/9 "2000-10-11T00:35:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by M.K. \* > **I actually knew for a fact (heh) since early childhood that it was Eisenhower-- I have no idea where that came from, but it stuck. And about a month ago a coin collecting friend corrected me and I was floored.** A conspiracy! I thought this for quite a while when I was younger also. I think one of my parents told it to me… ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/10 "2000-10-11T01:05:24Z")
The profile looks sorta like FDR, but I’ve always had this “rectangular” mental image of his head, as opposed to the softer, rounded image seen on the dime. I think they took a little artistic license with the portrait. ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/11 "2000-10-11T11:53:56Z")
There’s a movement in Congress to put Reagan on the $10 bill, not the penny. It’s a terrible idea, and a terrible way to remember a terrible administration. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/12 "2000-10-11T14:53:00Z")
There’s a movement in Congress to keep Reagan’s head alive in a jar forever, so Republicans can continue to worship him for his Astonishing Popularity. Or to carve him on Mount Rushmore, one or the other. And I thought re-naming the airport in DC was bad enough. It’s all kind of icky, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/13 "2000-10-11T15:04:00Z")
Uke- as a Republican who admires Reagan, I agree. It’s icky and it’s _way_ too early. Wait until enough time has passed that there can be a fair and unbiased opinion on his legacy, and work from there. Otherwise, you end up with Kennedy syndrome- immediately a martyr, later a putz, the real truth somewhere between (though I personally lean more towards the putz opinion). And to try and keep this in GQ- the story I had heard was that FDR was memorialized on the dime as a reference to “The March Of Dimes”, the famous campaign to raise money to eradicate polio (which FDR suffered from). ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/14 "2000-10-11T15:12:23Z")
On a related topic, I like to ask people how many acorns are on a U.S. dime? No one believes it, but there are two. If you look, you’ll see them on the reverse. You can win a fortune in dimes betting on this! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/15 "2000-10-11T15:14:26Z")
Likewise with the olives. . . . ---
**Author:** ![conway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@conway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conway)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/16 "2000-10-11T15:16:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > \*\*There’s a movement in Congress to keep Reagan’s head alive in a jar forever, so Republicans can continue to worship him for his Astonishing Popularity. \*\* They did it with Nixon, right? Oh wait a second… ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/17 "2000-10-11T15:32:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by John Corrado \* > **(though I personally lean more towards the putz opinion)** Hey, lay off Kennedy, man. If it wasn’t for Kennedy, you and I would be spending upwards of a hundred bucks a year on hats. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/18 "2000-10-11T15:36:55Z")
A related numismatic question: Who was the first U.S. President to appear on our currency, what yeat did happen, and what was the denomination? As an aside - I’d like to see ol’ Ronnie’s head (and his even more foggy brain) stuck on a pike, but that’s just my wishful thinking. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/19 "2000-10-11T15:49:35Z")
from: [http://www.cookcoin.com/trivia.htm](http://www.cookcoin.com/trivia.htm) “When Lincoln appeared on the 1909 cent, it was the first time a U.S. President had been put on our regular issue coinage.” ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2000, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368/20 "2000-10-11T15:55:30Z")
urgh … a double post … from the same website: "That the 1900 Lafayette commemorative silver dollar was the first U.S. coin to bear the portrait of an American, and the first to bear the portrait of a President of the United States. Washington and Lafayette both appeared on the coin. " So it seems that 1900 is the first time a commemorative coin showed a president, and then in 1909 we had regular issue cents showing Lincoln. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-president-is-on-the-dime/36368.md?page=2)