In the nineteenth century there was general public prejudice against portraits appearing on the coinage. This was partly due to the belief that President Washington in early 1792 had refused to allow his profile to appear on coins of this country. His wish was honored for more than a century, until the time of Theodore Roosevelt.
The Rough Rider president felt that Abraham Lincoln had been dead for nearly 50 years and had stood the test of time, historians ranking him among the best. For this reason, Roosevelt decided that the Civil War chief executive would grace the one-cent piece and commissioned skilled artisan and sculptor Victor David Brenner to do the honors. The new coin was well received but no further portraits on the regular coinage were created until 1932, when George Washington got his just reward on the quarter dollar, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of his birth.
Franklin Roosevelt became president in March 1933 and at first had other matters on his mind, notably the Great Depression, but he was also an avid stamp collector and perhaps dabbled in coins as well. FDR’s postmaster general, James A. Farley, created numerous special philatelic issues and it was not that much of a stretch to extend this interest towards coins. By 1937 the Administration had decided that Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president, would be on the five-cent piece beginning in 1938.
No Congressional action was required for
