Dimes are finally cool again! That’s important, because I might be genetically predisposed to dislike the Roosevelt version. The whole thing starts with my great-grandfather, Howard H. Shideler. As a young man, he was appointed assistant cashier at a bank in Huntington- a remarkably prestigious position for someone his age. After serving as a corporal during World War I at twenty, Howard returned to Citizens State Bank. Then came the Great Depression.
Around 1932, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a nationwide “bank holiday” that temporarily closed every bank in the country until federal examiners determined each was financially sound. According to family lore, Howard believed politics influenced which banks were allowed to reopen first. Whether or not that’s true is impossible for me to say today. What isn’t in doubt is that Citizens State remained closed for four long years.
The consequences were devastating: by the time the bank finally reopened, Howard was nearly destitute and one of only a handful of employees still living after several colleagues had taken their own lives. It would be years before my great-grandpa found meaningful employment again, and he blamed F.D.R. for what had happened. After it debuted in 1946, he refused to carry a Roosevelt dime for the rest of his life! Fortunately, I inherited not his grudge but his fascination with history. That curiosity eventually led me to discover that the dime’s story is far more interesting than the person’s face that happened to be on it.
The United States is celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence this year- an occasion awkwardly but accurately known as the Semiquincentennial. I’ve been marking it by researching Revolutionary War Patriots who eventually settled in Delaware County, but another event has captured my attention just as much: the issuance of new commemorative coinage.
As far as I’m concerned, the 2026 Emerging Liberty dime is one of the finest circulating coins the Mint has produced in generations. I was so eager to own one, in fact, that I paid three dollars for a single dime I stumbled across at a flea market! Unfortunately, that may have been the worst numismatic investment I’ve ever made: over the following week, I received ten more in ordinary pocket change at the drive-thru and grocery store. Still, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony: eighty years after my great-grandfather swore off dimes, here I was eagerly hunting for one.
I’ve collected all sorts of things over the years, but I caught the coin bug about eighteen months ago. I have a weakness for obsolete denominations, but my modest collection ranges from an 1804 half-penny to those 2026 commemoratives. Somewhere along the way I realized I’d assembled a respectable collection of dimes, and looking through them tells a fantastic story about how American numismatic art has changed.
The dime -originally spelled disme– was authorized by the Coinage Act of 1792 and first struck four years later. Liberty appeared in many forms over the next century and a half, from Draped Bust and Capped Bust to Seated Liberty and Barber. Aside from the Draped Bust design, I’ve managed to collect at least one example of every major type.
My oldest are Capped Bust dimes struck in 1834 and 1835. I also have several Seated Liberty dimes dating from 1853 to 1890 and six Barber dimes minted between 1897 and 1915. The Barber design marked an important step in the denomination’s evolution, but everything changed in 1916. That year, the Mint selected sculptor Adolph A. Weinman’s Winged Liberty Head design, which became known as the Mercury dime thanks to Liberty’s winged Phrygian cap. The reverse paired a fasces, symbolizing strength through unity, with an olive branch representing peace.
To my eye, the Mercury dime is one of the most beautiful coins the United States has ever produced. Gone was the stern, matronly Liberty that dominated American coinage for generations. In her place stood a youthful, confident figure who felt unmistakably American while still drawing inspiration from the classical world. The coin was modern. It was confident. It felt alive. Even people who know nothing about coinage tend to pause when they see a Mercury dime! Then, in 1946, the masterpiece disappeared.
I get why the Mercury dime was jettisoned. Franklin Roosevelt died the previous year and was honored on the new dime because of his association with the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis- better known as the March of Dimes. Flash forward to today, though, and his visage has spent eighty uninterrupted years on the dime! That’s a remarkably long run. That’s why I was so excited when the Mint finally did something different.
Issued only during this year’s Semiquincentennial, the 2026 Emerging Liberty dime finally restores Liberty to America’s ten-cent piece. It isn’t a nostalgic recreation of the Mercury dime. Instead, it captures the same artistic spirit while presenting Liberty in a way that feels unmistakably twenty-first century! The obverse shows a youthful Liberty in profile whose windswept hair implies genuine movement. Her Phrygian cap acknowledges earlier generations of American coinage without outright copying them. The portrait feels fresh, confident, and definitely American.
The reverse is just as compelling. In the place of the torch, oak branch, and olive branch of the Roosevelt dime is a dramatic close-up of a single soaring eagle whose flame dominates the reverse. It’s clean, dynamic, and powerful- especially for a coin barely larger than a thumbnail! Still, what impresses me most is what the Mint didn’t do: so much recent commemorative coinage favors gimmicks over artistry, but this is a genuinely new Liberty that respects the past without imitating it.
Most people will spend one of these dimes without giving it a second thought in future years. All the same. I hope they take a look before they do: for the first time in generations, America’s smallest coin is once again one of its most beautiful! There is no traditional Latin-derived single-word term for a 130th anniversary, but Howard H. Shideler would have celebrated his this past May. He may have refused to carry a Roosevelt dime from 1946 on, but I bet he would have loved this Emerging Liberty.
My son has taken a big interest in coins over the past several years, and we have collected several of these examples, too. But I am sorely disappointed in the design chosen for the new dime which glaringly omits the olive branch as a balance to the arrows.
I noticed that too and did some digging. Along the way, I got the impression that the coins -the dime, but mostly the quarters- tell the story of achieving American independence. I’m led to believe the ommission of the olive branch as a balance was a reference to the dime symbolizing the Revolutionary War. The mint says “the designs on these historic coins depict the story of America’s journey toward a ‘more perfect union,’ and celebrate America’s defining ideals of liberty,” but it does feel a little on the nose and graceless given the current political climate.