Barber Half Dollars 1892-1915 Coin

Telephone examined began between New York and Chicago. Also in Chicago, 30-year-old soap salesclerk William Wrigley ongoing selling chewing gum instead. The Coca-Cola Company was orderly in Atlanta, and the first pneumatic exhaust was sham.

The year was 1892, and new beginnings seemed to be the order of the day. That was the folder in United States penny, as well. Three new silver coins entered circulation that year. Sometimes identified as the Liberty Head half cash, area and dime, they're more regularly referred to by the name of their designer: U.S. Mint chief sculptor-engraver Charles E. Barber.

The fractional silver coins were long overdue for a facelift. All had conceded the Seated Liberty likeness for more than half a century, and while it's constant that life was more leisurely back then, the stride of change in this task was downright cool. The Mint had little incentive to change the designs of these coins. Only one of the three, the Seated Liberty dime, had been made in the before decade in something approaching average records. New half dollars and quarters were barely struck at all during the 1880s, because the central government had more than enough older coins (some dating back to the late 1840s) stashed away in its vaults to convince communal necessary.

The Mint was not oblivious to the need for new designs. In his yearly describe for 1887, Mint Director James P. Kimball pointedly referred to the "prevalent require for an improvement of the penny in reverence to the bestow designs." Not awaiting 1890 did the inventories of older halves and quarters finally decline to the meaning where habitual production seemed probable to resume, making the time more propitious for giving the silver coins a classify-new look.

In 1890, Kimball protected legal underpinning for the thought of ordinary object change. He prevailed winning Congress to elapse legislation specifying that from that meaning familiar, coin designs could be misused administratively after being in use for a minimum of 25 years. The half cash, lodge and dime were eligible at once, although, in item of detail, the Mint could have untouched them, any time it sought under the banner procedures it had followed in previous living.

The notion intrigued kimball of asset a partial competition to attain new designs for the silver currency. At his urging, in 1890 the Treasury invited ten outstanding artists to acquiesce proposed designs for the half money, sector and dime. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the citizens's pre-imminent sculptor, headed the roll of invitees.

There's little suspect that the contest would have borne impressive fruit, but before it could instigate the artists got together and drafted a set of provisos lacking which, they insisted, they wouldn't compete. Among other effects, they demanded that each entrant get $100 for each sketch that he submitted and $500 for each complete kind. The Treasury crooked them down and instead conducted a contest open to one and all. This twisted some 300 entries, but nothing deemed usable on the change.

Chief Engraver Barber proved to be the winner in the end. Frustrated by the penniless municipal entries, the Mint crooked to Barber in 1891 to invent the coins, an assignment he had popular all along. Barber came up with akin face artwork for all three coins. It features a right-facing regulate of Liberty with her wool assured up in a cap, a laurel circlet resting along her hairline and a headdress demeanor the incused inscription LIBERTY over her crest. The designer's opening (B) is at the foot of the isthmus. On the half cash and quarter, the motto IN GOD WE TRUST appears above this sketch, the court below and thirteen stars alongside.

The two larger coins also allocate an usual swap propose. It depicts a heraldic eagle with a defend on its breast, an emerald outlet clutched in its right talons and a bundle of arrows in its left talons. Inscriptions on this aspect embrace UNITED STATES OF AMERICA along the top border, the report of price along the floor and E PLURIBUS UNUM on a ribbon detained tightly in the eagle's beak. Thirteen stars are arrayed in the subject above the eagle.

All three Barber silver coins debuted in 1892, and all three had steady, unspectacular careers in the realm's coinage marshal. In the task of the Barber half money, annual production never exceeded six million pieces at any given mint; the highpoint came in 1899, when the major mint in Philadelphia made just a shade over 5.5 million. On the other hand, yearly yield never dropped below 100,000 coins at any one mint. The low point occurred in 1914, when just 124,610 half dollars were struck at Philadelphia. Besides the main mint, Barber halves also were created at the separate mints in New Orleans (O mintmark), San Francisco (S) and Denver (D), with the mintmark located below the eagle's tail. Scarce issues embrace 1892-O, 1892-S, 1893-S, 1896-S, 1901-S, 1904-S and the last three pieces from Philadelphia-1913, 1914 and 1915. However, there are no extremist rarities.

Proofs were bent every year, with mintages ranging from a high of 1,245 in the first year of flow to a low of 380 in 1914, the moment-to-last year of the string. In 1916, the Barber a new half dough replaced coin, the Walking Liberty typeface, and no resistant halves were issued.

Barber half dollars were struck for a compute of 24 existence and in 73 different year-and-mint combinations. Collectors do assemble court-and-mint sets, especially in circulated grades, but in mint chaos this coin is far more regularly calm by letters. Important records subsist in mint state levels up to MS-65, but above that the population is frail. When grading this sketch, the points on the obverse that will first show apparel are the cheek and the curls below LIBERTY; on the back, confirm the eagle's rule and the tips of the tail and wings.

The full yield of Barber half dollars for all 24 time was only about 136 million coins. That's minus than half the number of Kennedy halves struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1964 lonely, but then Barber halves were better money. Back in 1900, a half dough would have bought a man's shirt or two pairs of suspenders. Money indeed went farther in the "good old days!"

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 30.6 millimeters Weight: 12.50 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .36169 degree natural 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 Halves, DLRC Press,Virginia Beach, VA, 1993. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co.,New York, 1966. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Eisenhower Dollar 1973 Proof

When the Treasury Department prepare a halt to the paying out of silver dollars in March of 1964, it looked like the closing interval had been written for these historic coins. Surprisingly, Congress voted that same year to coin 45 million additional silver dollars. Coming in the midst of a spartan nationwide coin lack, this seemingly frivolous employment of the Mint's machinery and person power was ended after just 316,076 pieces had been struck, and these coins were never issued. The Coinage Acted of July 23, 1965 included a provision that no rank silver dollars were to be coined for a period of five being. The situation could then be re-evaluated at that time.

As the end of Congress' five-year ban on silver dollars approached, the idea was conceived for a circulating buck coin to credit war hero and two-tenure President Dwight David Eisenhower, who had freshly died. With silver long left from the citizens's dimes and quarters, and with ongoing dispute over its discontinuance in the half cash, there was never any profound consideration of with the precious metal in circulation strikes of the new Eisenhower money. There were those, however, who argued for a silver collectors' style to be sold at a premium over face treasure.

Congressman Bob Casey of Texas introduced a charge into the House on October 29, 1969 work for a circulating commemorative money to reverence both Eisenhower and the Apollo XI liberty flight, mankind's first hall on the moon. More than a year of next wrangling was to track before this statement was lastly official in a modified form. Along the way, the U.S. Mint prepared an alternative reversal propose featuring a heraldic eagle that looked, in the terms of imminent numismatic writer Q. David Bowers, like something one would find on a Mint prototype of the 1870s. Reportedly, one of the two proposed reversal designs (doubtless the Apollo XI image, given its implications for the world's coming) originally featured an eagle whose expression the U.S. State Department feared other nations would translate as hostile. Whether the eagle which ultimately did grow on the coin's reorder is a "open" bird is testing to establish from its neutral expression.

Becoming law on December 31, 1970, the schedule that shaped the Eisenhower cash providing for a circulating coin made from the copper-nickel sandwich or "dressed" composition then being worn for dimes and quarters (and for half dollars start in 1971). It also tolerable the coining of up to 150 million silver-clothed coins for retailing to collectors. These would be coined in the same composition lately worn for halves square 1965-70, two outer layers that were 80% silver and 20% copper bonded to an inside extract that was about 21% silver and 79% copper. This bent a whole mix that was 40% silver, with the equalize being copper. A controversial amendment to this document if a portion of the profits from the vending of these antenna coins would be donated to Eisenhower College, a reserved institution in Seneca Falls, New York which ultimately folded though receiving some $9 million dollars from this spring.

As Mint Director Mary Brooks wanted the coins bent rapidly, there was no time for a shared propose competition. Chief Engraver Franked Gasparro was directed to arrange the models in as little time as vital. Expecting this currency, Gasparro had already begun work; his galvano for the facade bore the year 1970, even though the first Ike dollars were square 1971. His devise portrays on the obverse a bare-headed, left-facing profile bust of the recent leader. Arranging in an arc above him is the legend LIBERTY, while the motto IN GOD WE TRUST appears in two outline below Eisenhower's cheek. The date is at base, with the mintmark (if any) above it and to the right. Gasparro's initials FG are on the truncation of the bust. The problem depicts the American eagle, a lime diverge of stillness in its talons, descending onto the moon. The hazy Earth is in the handle above and to the left. The motto E PLURIBUS UNUM is centered above the eagle, and the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is given in an arc around the high fringe. The price ONE DOLLAR is superimposed on the moon's surface along the lessen border. An arc of small stars surrounds the eagle, Earth and the motto. The initials FG occur below the eagle's tail.

Why the coins were not ready to be issued until November 1, 1971 isn't certain, although it was supposed the abundant tribunal strikes were abandoned because of goal deficiencies. Collectors snapped up a good portion of the dollars free that day and for some months afterward. Still, enough were coined that they ultimately reached the channels of buying. It was only then that the fundamental flaw in Congressional belief was naked: the American open minimally had no desire to use these large and gloomy coins. True, betting casinos welcomed the revenue of truthful cash coins to succeed the cash-sized tokens that had been used since 1965, but even the casinos ultimately hackneyed of these coins. Too often, customers took them home as souvenirs, since they were seldom seen elsewhere and people imagined them to be underdone.

With a dropoff in ultimatum for new Ike dollars, the Mint opted to register only enough of the 1973 magazine to discharge tips for uncirculated coin sets from collectors. This left a net mintage of excluding than 2 million each for the Philadelphia and Denver Mints. From the outset, San Francisco had coined only the unusual aerial coins: the uncirculated copy of the silver-dressed composition (known from it's packaging as the "desolate Ike") and the evidence form of the same coin (known as the "coffee Ike"). Beginning in 1973, it also coined an evidence edition of the copper-nickel coin for inclusion in the expected resistant set.

The residents's impending Bicentennial resulted in a competition for commemorative designs to mercy the reverses of the section, half and dough, respectively. The pleasing point for the buck's undo was submitted by Dennis R. Williams, whose clever theory of the Liberty Bell superimposed on the moon provided a connect between previous and offering (his initials DRW are found to the right of the signal's clapper). The steady buck coinage square 1974 sustained until the middle of 1975, when production of the new Bicentennial designs dated 1776-1976 began. This left no dollar coins dated 1975. The Bicentennial pieces were first released in the plummet of 1975, and their mintage lasting through the following year. Silver-clothed coins were made at San Francisco, besides the circulating version coined at Philadelphia and Denver. The even motif returned in 1977 and 1978, when the Eisenhower series was ended in benefit of the ill-meant Susan B. Anthony "baby dollar." For these two years, however, no Ikes were coined in silver.

There are no bloody dates within the reliable coinage of Eisenhower dollars, although several issues, particularly 1971 and 1972 dollars from the Philadelphia Mint, were poorly made and are stubborn to locate array. Several teenager varieties resulted from refinements to the hubs during the first few years. The Bicentennial coins subsist with both the Variety 1 reverse (broad script) or the Variety 2 (narrow lettering). A small mass of silver-clothed dollars were made at the Denver Mint in mistake and may be found dated 1974-D, 1976-D or 1977-D. Proofs of the Bicentennial dollar were coined in 1974 at the Philadelphia Mint lacking a mintmark, but none are known to survive. A song silvered-dressed resilient of the jiffy category has been documented lacking a mintmark, its place of source strange.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 24.59 grams (silver-clad) Composition: .800 silver.200 copper bonded to .209 silver.791 copper Net Weight: .3161 ounce complete silver Weight: 22.68 grams (CuNi-clad) Composition: .750 copper.250 nickel bonded to downright copper Edge: Reeded

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Wiles, James, Ph.D, CONECA Attribution Guide to Eisenhower Dollar Varieties, CONECA, Fort Worth, TX, 1997. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 48th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1994.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

1904 Morgan Dollar, Brilliant Uncirculated

Political bulldoze, not civic petition, brought the Morgan cash into being. There was no unfeigned must for a new silver buck in the deceased 1870s; the last before "flip," the Liberty Seated dough, had been legislated out of reality in 1873, and barely anyone missed it.

Silver-mining happiness did neglect the buck, still, and lobbied Congress forcefully for its benefit. The Comstock Lode in Nevada was yielding giant quantities of silver, with ore appraise $36 million being extracted annually. After some futile attempts, the silver forces in Congress-led by Representative Richard ("Silver Dick") Bland of Missouri-finally disarmed authorization for a new silver money when Congress approved the Bland-Allison Act on February 28, 1878. This Acted essential the Treasury to obtain at market levels between two million and four million dollars of silver gold every month to be coined into dollars. This amounted to a small subsidy, arrival when the money's face penalty exceeded its intrinsic regard by only 0.07%.

In November 1877, virtually four months before passage of the Bland-Allison Act, the Treasury saw the handwriting on the roadblock and began making preparations for a new cash coin. Mint Director Henry P. Linderman designed Chief Engraver William Barber and one of his assistants, George T. Morgan, to make prototype dollars, with the best originate to be worn on the new coin. Actually, Linderman permanent this "contest" in Morgan's help; he had been dissatisfied with the work of the two Barbers-William and his son, Charles-and in 1876 had hired Morgan, a talented British engraver, with tactics to delegate him with new coin designs. At that time, resumption of silver dough penny was not yet planned, and Morgan began work on designs planned for the half money. Following Linderman's orders that a move of Liberty should return the thorough-notable depiction then in use, Morgan recruited Philadelphia drill coach Anna Willess Williams to pose for the new point.

Morgan's face features a left-facing portrait of Miss Liberty. The hitch depicts a rather skinny eagle which led some to vilify the coin as a "buzzard buck." The designer's early M appears on both sides-a first. It's on the truncation of Liberty's spit and on the ribbon's left round on the overturn. Mintmarks (O, S, D, and CC) are found below the circlet on the change. Points to confirm for carry on Morgans are the tresses above Liberty's eye and ear, the high upper fold of her cap and the crown of the eagle's breast.

Soon after production began, somebody advised the Mint that the eagle should have seven tail down, instead of the eight being exposed, and Linderman prepared this change. As an outcome, some 1878 Morgan dollars have eight feathers, some seven-and some show seven over eight. The seven-over-eight class is the scarcest, though all are somewhat customary.

More than half a billion Morgan dollars were struck from 1878 through 1904, with production taking place at the chief mint in Philadelphia and the branches in New Orleans, San Francisco and Carson City. Carson City production was normally much minor and defunct all together after that outlet was bunged in 1893. The coin came back for one closing curtain call in 1921, when more than 86 million examples were bent under the language of the Pittman Act at Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver-but that was a bend-edged sword: Under the 1918 legislation, more than 270 million adult silver dollars, almost all Morgans, had been melted. The law necessary replacements for these, but most were of the Peace shape, which replaced the Morgan edition at the end of 1921.

In all, some 657 million Morgan dollars were formed in 96 different year-and-mint combinations. Hundreds of millions were melted over the time-by the government under the Pittman Act and the Silver Act of 1942, and by exclusive refiners since the delayed 1960s, when rising silver prices made this profitable. Despite all the melting, Americans had more than enough Morgans to pervade their daily wishes, since the dollars circulated often only in the West. As an outcome, colossal stockpiles remained in the Treasury's vaults, as well as reserve vaults nationwide. This explains why, so many Morgan dollars are so well preserved nowadays although their age; few saw actual use.

Even as the numismatic hobby underwent express lump beginning in the 1930s, hobby in other collecting areas far outpaced the mind paid to the large Morgan cartwheels. Most collectors favored the slash face-value coins (with their lower price) that were gladly available in circulation. Although it was viable to order silver dollars through banks or quickly from the Treasury, few noticed or cared. In the behind 1930s, however, some Washington dealers scholarly that the Treasury Department's Cash Room near the White House was paying out uncirculated Carson City money-coins having a market value of $5 or more at the time! More than a few dealers calmly exploited this discovery throughout the 1940s and '50s.

In the early 1960s, with silver rising in price, opportunists recognized the occasion to rotation securely profits by abiding silver certificates for money coins-mostly Morgans-at the Treasury. By the time the government clogged this rewarding glass in 1964, only 2.9 million cartwheels were left in its vaults, almost all of the scarce Carson City Morgans. The General isolated these Services Administration in a sequence of letters-bid sales from 1972 through 1980, earning big profits for the government and triggering great new notice in silver dollars.

Interest in Morgans was auxiliary heightened by the promotion surrounding the 400,000+ dollars found in the basement of Nevada eccentric LaVere Redfield's home. After word leaked out of the amazing store, some dealers got into the act, each jockeying for take in a crawl that ultimately wrecked with a Probate Court mart detained in January of 1976. At that auction, A-Mark Coins of Los Angeles captured the pile with a disarming bid of $7.3 million. The coins were cooperatively marketed by several dealers over a cycle of some days. Rather than depressing prices, the orderly spreading of these coins only fetched more collectors into the Morgan dollar fold. Similarly, the early 1980s witnessed the uniformly successful distribution of the 1.5 million silver dollars in the Continental Bank collect.

The Morgan dollar's scoop is a Cinderella tale: Until the 1960s, it was mostly unnoticed by the civic. Since then, it has gradually become among the most broadly pursued and preferred of all U. S. Coins. Although many collectors find the challenge of assembling an extreme court and mintmark set in Mint State compelling, others gratify themselves with collecting just one coin per year. Exceptional specimens are also wanted after by typeface collectors.

Major keys contain 1895, 1893-S, 1895-O, 1892-S, 1889-CC, 1884-S and 1879-CC. Mint minutes show that 12,000 dealing-smack dollars were made in Philadelphia in 1895, but only proofs are known; the mintage of these is 880. Proofs were made for every year in the series, but only a few brilliant proofs-variously reported at 15 to 24-are known for 1921. Prooflike Morgans also are well valued and are composed in both Prooflike (PL) and Deep-Mirror Prooflike (DPL or DMPL).

Few coins in U.S. account have been greeted with more indifference at the time of their release than this silver dollar. And few, if any, have then departed onto stimulate such passionate excitement among collectors.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 ounce downright silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States. A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Fey, Dr. Michael S. And Oxman, Jeff, The Top 100 Morgan Dollar Varieties: The VAM Keys, RCI Publishing, Morris Plains, NJ, 1996. Miller, Wayne, The Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook, Adam Smith Pub. Co., Metairie, LA, 1982. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993. Van Allen, Leroy C. & Mallis, A. George, Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars, 3rd Edition, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA 1991.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.