Why aren't barbers more popular? Design? Same image on several denominations? What do you think?
TheLiberator
Posts: 1,023 ✭✭✭
Hmmmm...? I think they look great circulated and nice is ms too. Whay aren't these lower mintage guys more popular? AND...do you ever see that changing?
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Basically the designs compare poorly to the Walker Halves and Standing Lib quarters. As for Barber dimes and Mercury dimes, I like those designs about equally.
However, I do like the Barber designs A LOT when they're found with choice, original, high-grade circ surfaces. And a "perfect original", well-circulated piece is a very nice thing too (but that applies to most coins) -
For Barbers though, anything "nice" is very typically few and far between, which rather works against them so far as easily-whipped-up demand goes. Compare to the bagfuls of beautiful, and very marketable, short-set late date BU Walkers.
But they're nice coins. Barbers saw very heavy circulation, so they can be challenging in better grades- even in the better circulated grades, as OIB pointed out.
Maybe this is the reason they're not more popular to collect by date and mint. They're just challenging enough to deter someone from trying to put together a set, and this keeps the demand down a little, perhaps?
<< <i>The Barbers have a rather bland design in comparison, and Liberty is mannish looking.
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Totally agree, and the classical look is over done to the point of caricature. I've always disliked the straight line of the nose forehead combo looks freakish.
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And as has been indicated, Barber designs criculated heavily, and they were also melted heavily during the silver peak, and the resulting lack of even VF to AU coins in many issues makes the set an exercise in patience and acceptance that many newer collectors can not seem to accept.
I collect both the dimes and quarters in Choice AU/Unc, and would collect the halves as well, but I don't need another impossible challenge right now.
Oh, and as for will that change ... probably not ... but if you'd like a strong offer for a low mintage, low survival dime or quarter in Choice AU ...
well you can always remember to PM me first!
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
"The Barbers have a rather bland design in comparison, and Liberty is mannish looking."
I don't care what anyone says because I think they are the best looking coins ever minted.
MY EBAY >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
You know, you're okay, Barberkid.
I think barbers aren't more popular because of several reasons but I think the main reason for unpopularity is their unavailability in original condition in the nice circulated grades, fine through about uncirculated. Many a Barber coin's originality was forever ruined in bygone days by people who cleaned them, sometimes harshly, in an effort to "improve" their appearance.
If more Barbers had been saved and preserved properly they would be more popular today is my theory.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
Last year a forum member told me she looks like a drag queen
And someone just said she looks transexual !!!
So, since you feel that way, please send me all your offensive barber coins, I'll give them a good home.
Is it true that Charles Barber used his wife as the model for the design ?
Actually, its about more then the design, 1892 to 1916 was a reaaly important period in our history with the fast pase of the industrial revolution and the strong growth of our country in a time of relative peace & prosperity. I think it would have been a great period to have lived in. I know they called the 1890's the gay 90's, but back then I think they just meant happy times. And she does not look like a drag queen !!!
Les
the proofs are really cool if they have great color and/or strongly cameoed surfaces
even if you cant find all the coins for a date set a type set is really cool too
a couple of dimes quarters halves some white some colored some strongly cameoed proof coins or get all the different mints they where struck at
and yes they are ingored and undervalued and this is good!!!!! then you can get great values and opportunities
just like the early dollars that where dead for almost two decades they reawakened since 2000 and have gone up likewild fire in price
so you had better buy your barbers now while the getting is still good at not hyped up prices
a good thing i hope they stay unpopular quiet for most they are extremely popular and historical coins and extremely desirable to me!!
Someone married her?
I'll be honest, I don't really like them in lower grades, but once they've got some depth (and some dirt
Jeremy
the lowest proof coin of any proof barber of any demonination and i think one of the lowest mintage proof silver/copper/nickel coins of the 20th century
even lower than the 1909 vdb matte proof which has a net mintage of 420 coins
and yet the 1914 proof barber quarter is not priced much more than a so called common date proof barber quarter a great buy:ThumbsUp
net mintage means they struck more and since the mint kept records and melted part of the mintage this means net as only the mintage minus the melted coins is the true mintage
I've been on the prowl for nice original better circulated Barbers for over five years now. The hunt keeps me busy, and away from other series that might distract my attention.
When I decided to return to collecting after a 12-year hiatus, Barber Dimes seemed an obvious choice for me. The somewhat boring design and small size made me think that this would be a series that would never be promoted heavily, like the Morgans and Frankilins which led me to leave coin collecting in the late 1980s. I could also afford to complete a set (since the 1894-S dime is normally exculded from a complete collection).
I went on to complete a set of halves, and would be crazier about the quarters were it not for the 1896-S, 1913-S, and especially the 1901-S. Still, I enjoy passing on most Barbers I see (either cleaned or worn slick). Building my collections has been worth the wait.
I am somewhat dismayed at all the recent attention Barbers are getting. Collecting better grade original circulated Barbers is getting almost trendy, if you read recent price guides. Still, I'm glad that these coins will never be mass-marketed.
I totally agree. Having collected the quarters and halves in Gem for over 12 years, I have seen the limited number of coins on the market at any given time, and even when a collection is sold (The Hugon sale at FUN), the prices didn't go through the roof. All of John's coins(both PCGS and NGC) were very nice, some spectactular, but the end results were just good. A couple of exceptions for the 1913-S quarter in PCGS MS 68, and the 1892-O in NGC 68*.
But if there were 5 to 10 more collectors putting a gem set together, and 20 more doing it in fine to AU, the prices would really start escalating. The same could be said for the Seated liberty quarters and halves. Pop 1 66's and 67's in that series are way undervalued, but a complete set involves 124 coins. There is only 1 set that is near complete ( and 5 to 6 in the Barber halves, none in the quarters, and 3 in the dimes.)
With 74 coins needed for the series, and only 5 to 6 possible gem sets in the halves, and less than that if AU 55 to AU 58 only is collected, the number of coins is insufficient to satisfy any large demand for quality examples.
However, the high end circs and MS coins are a beauty to behold, in my opinion. And are surely worth looking for and buying at today's prices. Just be sure to have a 7 to 10 year time horizon for completing the series in any denomination.
Connor Numismatics Website
Charles Edward Barber was a complete hack – AVOID THESE COINS, especially the quarters.
Dave
Ugly coins? Hardly. Those of you who shun these coins because you think "Liberty" should look more like your girlfriend or wife, well, keep on shunning. Those of us who haven gotten past this bias, if we ever had this bias in the first place, are most appreciative. Collect your series of interest with mintages in the billions, not millions or thousands, and leave the uglies to us who have come to understand that coin collecting is not, should not be all about "pops," one-point differences in grade opinion, the quest for the non-existent perfect coin, etc.
Barber nickels, dimes, quarters and halves are scarce, even the higher mintage dates/mints, in nice circulated grades in original "unmessed-with" condition. That PCGS slabbed AU50 1905-0 "micro O" dime that Barberkid posted a pic of is RARE.
Is that your "micro O," Barberkid?
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
Who knows why other collectors fawn over other series, like the little slugs of copper shaped with a dead president's face and some grain on the reverse, or the Walking Liberty halves with no face, except a little raisen shaped thing that you need a microscope to make out any detail. Secondly the artist got bored with carving out the design and couldn't muster any more energy to put in some denticles. Seriously, they should put people into jail who collect coins without denticles. It is like thinking a muscle car is cool with a go cart engine inside, or buying, "dogs playing poker" on velvet and hanging it on your trailer house living room.
I jest, but seriously, if more people thought they were attractive, I would have nothing to collect that I really like, and next thing you know I would be on these boards posting some foolishness about Overton numbers, or explaining how to detect copper cleaning....OH the horror!
Tyler
<< <i> posting some foolishness about Overton numbers >>