I was watching the History Channel last night. They had a show about the emergence of polio in America. I had forgotten completely about this and how cautious parents used to be since polio vaccinations were still new when I was born in 1950. I guess it was a very bad and contagious epidemic in the 20s and 30s. I knew kids at my school that, even then were crippled from it. You don't hear about it any more. FDR championed the cause with his "March of Dimes" project. Most of the younger members never heard of it. I remember it well, putting dimes into little folders that held ten to 20 dimes and handing them into my grade school teachers. Remember that guys? Anyways, on the show they showed campaign workers dumping bag after bag of Mercury dimes on tables. If you get the chance and they rerun it, it's a very good history lesson that coins made the difference. So that dime in your personal collection may have helped save some child's life. Personally, I think it did!
Really great story. I love history through coins. But, I agree with Schroeder, it's time for a design change. I really doubt that will happen though. The Democrats in Congress will never allow FDR to be removed from the dime.
