Grading Barbers - This a good source?

StrikeOutXXX

A local antique store (closest thing I have to a pawn and/or coin shop) has had a lot of Barber coins lately (mostly dimes). Since he's using the 2002 redbook for prices, and marks them down about 1/3 for me anyhow, and I believe he's undergrading as well, I've been buying most of what he has.

I searched through past posts and see many people don't subscribe to the just look at the liberty grading, and the sentiment seems to be the redbook descriptions are inadequate at best. I found this by Googling, and with the pictures and expanded descriptions, I liked the resource. Before I get too deep into learning to grade, is this website fairly accurate with their grading? I'm mainly dealing with G-EF range here.

Barbercoins.org

They reference a few books I may check out down the road if me or my son takes a serious interest in Barbers, but for now is it a pretty fair representation of the grades? If any Barber experts have other web resources or suggestions of books should I lean this way towards a specialty, I'd apprecite it as well.

Thanks!
Jeff

TheRaven

I have found them to be pretty good on the Quarters and Halves so likely would be on the dimes too.....

MFH

StrikeoutXXX,

You've stumbled onto a great web site. The nuances inbetween these grades will take a bit longer to fathom.

Hope you and your son get the Barber Bug !

StrikeOutXXX

Thanks you two, I'll go ahead and rely on the site a bit more for now unless someone comes up with something better.

As for the Barber bug, it does seem to be about as far back as you can go in silver coins that is still somewhat affordable in the lower grades for a 13-year old. Beyond that into the seated stuff gets too steep for the most part. They have a handful of seated coins, but he (nor I for that matter) have really shown much interest in them at this point. The Barber bug hasn't bit yet, but it's definately flying around.

TheRaven

Depending on the budget, Halves aren't that cheap really to put a set together, it can be done however.

I like VG coins, price is not bad and coins look nice.

ccex

StrikeoutXXX,

You've found a great source for learning how to grade circulated Barbers -- not just the website you link to, but also a source of affordable coins not priced too high.

Barbers are relatively easy to grade -- as far as details. It takes more than pictures on a website to tell if a coin has been cleaned or not, which is a bigger problem than overgrading in these series.

If the Barber bug bites, you and your son might try your skills at using the intermediate grades, like VG-10, F-15, and VF-30. Here's a link which shows the differenceVG-10 to VF-30

And you're right, there's more than LIBERTY in determining the grade. Completeness of rims, the eagle's wing tips/feathers (for quarters and halves), and detail in the lower leaves (dime) matter, too. And to challenge you further, try finding some VG-VF 1909 half dollars (P,O, or S). For some reason LIBERTY was boldly struck on these, so they are properly graded with details remaining elsewhere.

TheRaven

I still like a bit more detail in LIBERTY then that for a Fine-12, but that is me.

Barberman55

The BCCS (Barber Coin Collector's Society) is a great source for ALL Barber coin related information. David Lawrence's books on Barber dimes, Barber quarters and Barber halves are also very good references........not so much for grading, but for general information.