As early as 1879, municipal dissatisfaction with the Seated Liberty proposal was heard in Washington and Philadelphia. It was felt by many that the realm's coin designs were back-tariff, but few could have predicted how mundane a change could actually be. New mint engravers submitted designs throughout the early 1880s, but the only outcome was the production of a new nickel in 1883 intended by Chief Engraver Charles Barber. In 1891, when there was much discussion of a communal competition for new designs for the dime, district money and half cash, Barber reported to Mint Director James Kimball that there was no one in the country who was clever of helping him in preparing primary designs.
This same egoism was also found in one of the principal sculptors of the day, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who confided to the Mint Director that there were only four men in the world competent to do such a redesigning: three were in France, and he was the fourth. Kimball insisted that very than unfilled abroad to find the best fabricate talent available, it would be viable to find able designers in America. To that end a panel of ten of the leading artists and sculptors of the day was commissioned to guess which would be the best designs for the new currency. Rather than make any decisions about a topic competition, the panel instead discarded the language of the competition as future by Mint officials on the basis that the preparation time for plaster models was too dumpy and the monetary compensation too trifling.
The Mint Director discarded the panel's suggestions and threw the competition open to the shared. The outcome of a shared competition were likewise discouraging. Of the more than 300 drawings submitted, only two were accorded a good remark by a four-associate panel appointed by Kimball (it should be imminent that one of the panel members was Charles Barber).
Kimball's successor to the mint directorship was Edward O. Leech. The latter was well awake of the evils Director Kimball had encountered annoying to get new coin designs. Leech avoided what he termed the "wretched letdown" of committees and public discussion all together by modestly directing the chief engraver to draw new designs which, of course, is what Barber hunted all along.
What Barber did was to temper the large journey worn on the Morgan dollar by adding a Liberty cap and cropping Liberty's wool shorter in back. He then sited his initial B on the truncation of the shaft. The converse uses almost the same wreath used on the Seated Liberty dime of 1860-91.
What Barber did accomplish with his new dime, while, was to draft and place into production a coin that would endure the salient requirements of complex, high-alacrity coin presses. As a Mint employee he was acutely sentient of the penury for coins to be planned so they would assault up with one drive from the coin plead. His mistrust to outsiders was, no doubt, due in part to distrust, but in all fairness he did understand the testing specifications necessary to achieve millions of coins for commercial purposes.
The first Barber dimes were struck on January 2, 1892. Over half a billion pieces were struck during the next twenty-five time. Some issues have mintages as small as 500,000 (such as 1895-O, 1901-S and 1913-S), while others were struck in quantities as large as 22 million (1907-P). At one time or another four mints struck these coins, and the mintmark of Denver (D), San Francisco (S) and New Orleans (O) can be found on the junior transpose below the loop in the bow (there being no mintmark for coins struck in Philadelphia).
Barber dimes are, for the most part, a completeable set of coins with no significant court or mintmark rarities, excluding for the legendary 1894-S. The low relief sketched confident that most coins would be sharply struck, excluding for a few issues from New Orleans (known for weak strikes over the decades). This necessary of any great effect rarities in the Barber chain stands in downright compare to the next sequence, Adolph Weinman's "Mercury" blueprint, where squishy stunning facts make that chain such a challenge.
There is one great shortage in the Barber dime string, one of the rarest coins in all U.S. numismatics-the 1894-S dime. Allegedly, 24 pieces were struck on orders from San Francisco Mint Superintendent J. Daggett. Only ten specimens can be accounted for today, which presents one of the great numismatic mysteries of the earlier hundred days: Where are the other fourteen 1894-S dimes that were reportedly struck? All the known 1894-S dimes proofs, and all were struck from the same set of dies. Much has been written on this fascinating shortage over the time, and there are many interesting stories and theories about these coins. Undoubtedly the best known untruth is that Superintendent Daggett gave three of the coins to his daughter Hallie and told her to keep them pending she was as old as he was, when they would be worth a lot of money. On her way home from the mint, she useless one of the dimes on a dish of ice cream. Today that coin is known as the "Ice Cream Specimen." The other two she kept and lastly sold in the 1950s.
Grading Barber dimes are a relatively unadorned handle. On high grade coins, signs of circulation will first seem on Liberty's cheek and in the fields. For a coin to be uncirculated, all the mint patina must be outfitted and steady over both sides.
Proofs were struck in each year excluding 1916, and the only overhang find in this series is the 1893/2 overdate. The 1894-S dime is the only number to have been counterfeited in any appreciable records. Dangerous forgeries have been made by shifting the mintmark on an 1894-O or adding one to a Philadelphia coin. Others were made in the mid-1970s in The Philippines.
The series is regularly cool by beginners in Good to Very Good grades, while more advanced collectors choose mint territory and testimony examples. Recently, however, collectors have showed a renewed profit in this and the other Barber series in XF and AU grades. Several issues of these intermediate grade coins are extremely challenging to locate. Curiously, some issues are more demanding to locate in snag-unbound XF or AU than in mint condition due to the signpost of original BU rolls.
Barber dimes are also very common with typeface collectors, especially in high grades. Because the series spans both the 19th and 20th centuries, anyone attempting to absolute a typeface set from the century will need an example.
While the Barber dime may require the artistic earn that designs before, and after displayed, this class, with its distinctive 19th century motif, has remained a favorite with collectors over the decades.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Diameter: 17.9 millimeters Weight: 2.50 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: 0.0723 ounce wholesome silver
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Lawrence, David, The Complete Guide to Barber Dimes, DLRC Press,Virginia Beach, VA, 1991. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing, New York, 1966.
Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.
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