African-American artist Selma Hortense Burke won an international competition to create a sculpture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In early 1945, when Selma arrives at the White House for a sketching session, Donald, the African-American doorman, mistakes her for a domestic and directs her to the servants’ entrance. Their bumpy relationship develops over the following tumultuous year, during which FDR’s health deteriorates and he suddenly dies, one war ends while another begins, and Selma’s sculpture, now finished, is dedicated in the Hall of Records. After Roosevelt’s death, the minting of his dime is fast-tracked. Selma struggles to secure the design commission, but the project goes to John Sinnock, the Master Engraver of the US Mint. The new dime’s image bears a strong resemblance to Selma’s sculpture. She learns the following: that Sinnock sat in front of her sculpture and sketched; that under cover of darkness he had her charcoal drawing taken from the Hall of Records and placed in his office at the Mint; and, that earlier in his career he had been charged with a separate instance of numismatic plagiarism. Selma’s public calls for correction of the record are ignored. Her refusal to acquiesce quietly to the injustice leads J. Edgar Hoover to tap her phones and monitor her movements. Selma’s work suffers - she has to decide whether to keep up her campaign for design credit or let it go. Face on the Dime examines issues of ambition, creativity, loyalty, and intellectual theft.