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The
Barber Quarter
History of
the Barber Quarter
The Barber quarter,
once know as the “Liberty Head Quarter”, was minted from 1892 to 1916. In 1887,
Mint
 Director James P. Kimball noted in his annual report the “inferiority of
our coinage” compared to other advanced nations and that in his opinion, the
coinage of the U.S. was out of date and should be changed. At the request of
Kimball, Senator Justin S. Morill introduced a bill authorizing the
Treasury Department to redesign coins without first obtaining the permission of
Congress, as long as the current design had been in use for at least 25 years.
The bill passed on September 26, 1890 and the dime, quarter and half dollar were
targeted for change. The decision of who should redesign the coins eventually
fell to his successor, Edward O.
Leech.
Ironically, new
designs were submitted by Mint engravers throughout
the early 1880’s but the only change that occurred was a new nickel designed by
Charles E. Barber in 1883. In 1891, when there was discussion of a public
competition for new designs. Barber reported to Mint director Kimball that
there was no one in the country capable in assisting him in preparing original
designs. Augustus Saint-Gaudens confided to Kimball there were only four men in
the world competent do to such a redesign: three were in France and he was the
fourth. It did not matter. Kimball insisted that rather than going abroad to
find the best design talent available, it would be possible to find able
designers in America. Against the advice of Barber, the Treasury Department
organized a competition to produce new designs. A panel of 10 of the leading
artist and sculptors of the day were commissioned to judge which would be the
best designs for new coinage. The panel met and instead of discussing the
competition, they instead rejected the terms of the competition as proposed by
Mint officials on the ground that the preparation time was too short and the
compensation woeful. The Mint director rejected the panels’ suggestions and
threw the competition out to the public. The results were disastrous. Of the
more than 300 drawings submitted, only two received an honorable mention by a
smaller judging panel. It is interesting to note that two of the judges were
Barber and Saint-Gaudens.
When Leech took
over as Mint director, he was well aware of the problems his predecessor had
experienced. In order to get new designs into production and avoid another
disaster of a competition, he simply directed Barber to draw up new designs.
This is what Barber had wanted all along has he felt as Chief Engraver, he, and
he alone was responsible for coin design.
The result was not
much in the way of originality. That would have to wait for more than another
25 years. What Barber did was to modify the large head used on the Morgan
dollar by adding a Liberty cap and cropping Liberty’s hair shorter in back. She
is also facing the opposite direction of the dollar. He then placed his initial
B on the truncation of the neck. This was the design used not only on the
quarter, but the new dime and the new half dollar as well.
The reverse of the
coin depicts the Great Seal of the United States and shows an eagle with
outstretched wings, holding an olive branch with thirteen leaves in its right
claw and a shear of 13 arrows in its left. There is a ribbon with the motto E
PLURIBUS UNUM being held in the eagle’s beak and 13 stars are in the field.
The quarter was
introduced in 1892 just as the new dime and half dollar were. After the initial
strikes, it was discovered that the coins would not stack properly so the relief
and design elements on the reverse were altered leaving us with two types of
1892 quarters. On type I, the eagles’ wing covers only half of the E in UNITED
while in type two, the eagle’s wing covers most of the “E”. Although Type I is
a little more scarce, most publications do not price them separately.
Collectibility
General
Collecting Barber quarters, as well as other Barber
coinage, is an interesting challenge as Barber quarters (dimes and halves also)
were produced at 4 mints. The series consists of 74 regular issues, with no
significant varieties. It is a very popular series amongst collectors and can
be collected in all grades with the possibility of completing a set in mint
state conditions. A single quarter had significant buying power during its time
so most examples were heavily circulated. A total of 264 million quarters were
produced, nearly half the mintage of Barber dimes. Compare this to the quarter
of today where the mintage from each mint for each statehood quarter exceeds
this total. Still, the Barber series warrants serious consideration for
collectors and can be an exciting challenge.
Key/Semi Key Dates
As with the case with most coins of the time, the San
Francisco mint had lower production totals making mint-marked coins “generally”
more difficult to find and more expensive. While there are no rarities such as
the 1894-S dime, a complete set can be extremely challenging to complete.
Perhaps the most difficult to obtain will be the 1913-S. The 1913-S has the
distinction of being the lowest mintage regular issue silver coin of the 20th
century. A mere 40,000 of this example were struck. That’s 12,000 less than
the famous 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter. Interestingly enough though, you may
have more luck finding the 1913-S. It is priced around $1,300 in G4 while a SLQ
is priced around $3,500 in G4.
The second rarest Barber quarter is the 1901-S with a
mintage of only 72,664. This coin is actually more difficult to find than the
1913-S and the price reflects it. A G4 could cost you $6000 or more.
The third rarest Barber quarter is the 1896-S with a
mintage of only 188,039. With a mintage more than double the 1901-S, the cost
of this rarity is far less with a G4 priced around $700.
The price of these rarities continues to skyrocket in
higher grades as the supply is limited.
Once you get past the big three, there are about 6
dates that will cost between $40-$80 in average circulated grades. Beyond that,
most average coins will cost $5.00 to $20.00 making most dates and mints
attainable.
As with most sets, you can always put together a year
set which will be far less costly than a complete set.
Errors
There are no significant errors in the Barber quarter
series.
Proofs
A total of 17,299 proof Barber quarters were produced.
While proofs are not heavily collected, they, like most proofs are a beautiful
example of what the artist had in mind when designing the coin. An example
should be considered for any collection.
Vital Statistics
Summary
Key Coin Info
Designed by: Charles E. Barber
Issue dates: 1892-1916
Composition: 0.900 part silver, 0.100 part copper
Diameter: 24.3 mm.
Weight: 96.45 grains
Edge: Reeded
Business strike mintage: 264,670,880
Proof mintage: 17,299
Mintage
Date Mint Pop
1892 P 8,237,245
1892 O 2,640,000
1892 S 964,079
1893 P 5,484,838
1893 O 3,396,000
1893 S 1,454,535
1894 P 3,432,972
1894 O 2,852,000
1894 S 2,648,821
1895 P 4,400,880
1895 O 2,816,000
1895 S 1,764,681
1896 P 3,874,762
1896 O 1,484,000
1896 S 188,039
1897 P 8,140,731
1897 O 1,414,800
1897 S 542,229
1898 P 11,100,735
1898 O 1,868,000
1898 S 1,020,592
1899 P 12,624,846
1899 O 2,644,000
1899 S 708,000
1900 P 10,016,912
1900 O 3,416,000
1900 S 1,858,585
1901 P 8,892,813
1901 O 1,612,000
1901 S 72,664
1902 P 12,197,744
1902 O 4,748,000
1902 S 1,524,612
1903 P 9,670,064
1903 O 3,500,000
1903 S 1,036,000
1904 P 9,588,813
1904 O 2,456,000
1905 P 4,968,250
1905 O 1,230,000
1905 S 1,884,000
1906 P 3,656,435
1906 D 3,280,000
1906 O 2,056,000
1907 P 7,192,575
1907 D 2,484,000
1907 O 4,560,000
1907 S 1,360,000
1908 P 4,232,545
1908 D 5,788,000
1908 O 6,244,000
1908 S 784,000
1909 P 9,268,650
1909 D 5,114,000
1909 O 712,000
1909 S 1,348,000
1910 P 2,244,551
1910 D 1,500,000
1911 P 3,720,543
1911 D 933,600
1911 S 988,000
1912 P 4,400,700
1912 S 708,000
1913 P 484,613
1913 D 1,450,800
1913 S 40,000
1914 P 6,244,610
1914 D 3,046,000
1914 S 264,000
1915 P 3,480,450
1915 D 3,694,000
1915 S 704,000
1916 P 178,000
1916 D 6,540,800
Barber Quarter News
Updated : Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:10:56 GMT+00:00
Publ.Date : Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:49:36 GMT+00:00
Publ.Date : Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:04:34 GMT+00:00
Publ.Date : Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:17:37 GMT+00:00
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