Barber Dime Anomalies

boyhowdy

Musings from someone who spends entirely too much time
looking at Barber dimes.

*The 1892-P and 1892-S both are famous for often having
a chip over the 2 in the date. How come the 1892-O is
chipless?
*A large fraction of all Barber dime off-centers are 1916-S. Why?
*Is the 1909-D/horiz. D a true variety?
*Am I the only one hoarding micro-O 1905-O's?
*Why is the 1898 Phillie the most attractively toned coin?
*I complete a set of Barber dimes every year and frame them
in an old 1930's coin board. Anyone else do this?
*My vote for most overrated coin is the 1907-D in gem. Any
other votes?
*Which coin was hoarded and sold by a single eBayer to the
point where prices more than doubled in lower grades?
(Hint -- his eBay name starts 27*****)

Steve

Broadstruck

*A large fraction of all Barber dime off-centers are 1916-S. Why?

I've seen far more 1914-D's then 1916-S's, the 1916-S isn't really all that common IMHO.

cmerlo1

Here's a chipped '92 (not sure if this is what you mean)...I've cherrypicked several of the Micro-O 1905's, and they've sold for decent premiums. All were low grade, though.

rhedden

*Which coin was hoarded and sold by a single eBayer to the
point where prices more than doubled in lower grades?
(Hint -- his eBay name starts 27*****)


I'm going to guess 1913-S. Am I right?


On the chipped dates list, there is also an 1898-P that has a good chip above the last 8. I have one in PCGS MS63, which I bought by accident. Cool variety, but probably not worth much of a premium.

Regarding the toning comment, why are there so many 1893-P coins out there in high grade with blue toning? I have seen like 10 of these in the last year, including the PCGS MS64 that resides in my Registry set. These coins would get bagged for AT if I submitted them to PCGS or NGC, but they are all over the place. I think there must have been a hoard of similarly toned coins perhaps? I have seen a few 1893-P graded MS66 with this nearly solid blue coloration.

I wholeheartedly disagree with the 1907-D being overrated in gem grades. There simply aren't that many of them in MS64 and higher. Just check the PCGS Pop. report- it really is one of the rarest dates in MS64 and above. Maybe you know something that I don't? Are there a lot of them certified at NGC?

I nominate the 1899-S as the most overrated date in BU. These are available all the time in MS64-66, and sell for thousands of dollars anyway. I believe I heard somewhere that a large number of BU coins came back from the Phillipines at some point. The market is due for a big downward correction on these. I'm simply not paying $3500 for that coin in MS65 when it is available in quantity. PCGS has certified 80 of them as mint state, including duplicate submissions, according to the Pop. report, almost as many as the 1900-S. Yet the PCGS price guide says $1800 for a 1900-S in MS65, and $3800 for an 1899-S in the same grade. I just don't see the reason for this disparity. I would suggest a revised price guide value of $2500-2700 on the 1899-S in MS65. Now if you want a truly underrated S-mint, try the 1898-S in Gem. These are an awful pain to locate. What a difference one year can make.

Interesting thread. Thanks for starting it.

STONE

My guess will be that the 1913-S was hoarded.

Broadstruck

"Spiked Chin" variety 1898-P.

claychaser

My only imaged one, but not an anomoly, or however it's spelled:

seanq

<< <i>Musings from someone who spends entirely too much time
looking at Barber dimes.

*The 1892-P and 1892-S both are famous for often having
a chip over the 2 in the date. How come the 1892-O is
chipless? >>



Could be any of a number of reasons: Lower striking pressure? Better die storage? Fewer coins struck per die so they didn't have time to wear out and chip?



<< <i>*A large fraction of all Barber dime off-centers are 1916-S. Why? >>



I guess this could be the result of a single press malfunction resulting in several O/C to be struck in a row. Have you noticed if they are all similar in direction or degree of O/C?



<< <i>*Is the 1909-D/horiz. D a true variety? >>



I've never heard of this until this post - got a picture?



<< <i>*Am I the only one hoarding micro-O 1905-O's? >>



Definitely not, I know at least one other eBayer (besides me) who for years bid on every single one offered, attributed or not. I have a strong feeling they are not nearly as scarce in low grades as is generally believed.



<< <i>*Why is the 1898 Phillie the most attractively toned coin?
*I complete a set of Barber dimes every year and frame them
in an old 1930's coin board. Anyone else do this? >>



I wish I had the means to, I completed a set several years ago and I may yet try it again.



<< <i>*My vote for most overrated coin is the 1907-D in gem. Any
other votes? >>



I don't know I will say that the most underrated coin in lower grades is the 1900-O, I had the hardest time finding a nice problem-free G/VG when I did my first set.



<< <i>*Which coin was hoarded and sold by a single eBayer to the
point where prices more than doubled in lower grades?
(Hint -- his eBay name starts 27*****) >>



I don't know but I'd love to find out.


Sean Reynolds

boyhowdy

It was eBayer 27kills that forced the price runup of the 1913-S dime.
I was plotting prices a few years ago and noticed one person as
high bidder on lower grade '13-S's. I shot him an email to ask what
was up. He told me that he was an investor/collector that had been
interested in the price rise of the 1916-D Mercury. When they got too
difficult to find he decided to compare the mintages of other dimes with the
'16-D. He decided the 1913-S was undervalued relative to the 1916-D and
started buying. In the last year he has posted lots of 10 and 20 1913-S
dimes at a time. Note -- a few years ago I created a sheet that integrated
the CDN prices and the PCGS pop. sheet. The single most undervalued
price in gem as a factor of number made was the 1915-P. That issue was priced
at tpye coin price but was rarer, according to the pops., than the 1908-S!

My comment on the broadstruck and o/c Barber dimes is based on the research
of Lindsay Ashburn and his page (now retired) on Barber dime errors and varieties.
Lindsay has accumulated a ROLL of these coins and is adamant that the 1916-S
is far and away the most common date. Anecdotal information seems to support him.

I haven't had much luck posting pix but there was a controversy among BCCS'ers as
to wether the 1909-D/horiz. D was a valid variety or not. There are pro and con pix
in the BCCS journal. I was trying to see if the debate was still alive.

Broadsrtuck -- great picture of a two-fer error/variety! The 1898 is also the host of
the seldom seen and even more rarely discussed "booger" variety that Lindsay and
I have noticed. Neither claims credit for naming that one.

Sean -- I'm guessing that would be me bidding on all the micro-O's. Present tally is
24 coins with one AU, 1 XF, 4 F-VF and the rest in the G-VG range. 1990 or so I was
paying $5-7 for G-VG examples AND half of the coins I found were unattributed. Now
they usually close at $25-35 and are attributed close to 90% of the time. People are
getting smarter! By the way -- I did enough research to realize there are more than
one obverse die used to strike the micro-O dimes. I was hoping to find a way to ID
one of these coins from an obverse scan only. No luck. Also, while the triple-O, the 1900-O,
is tough with full rims there are 2 others that take that prize for not having full rims IMHO,
the 1902-S and 1904-S. If 27kills had picked these 2 instead of the 1913-S we would be paying
$20-25 and $100 respectively for original full rimmers.

The 1907-D in gem or better has to be the most available when you plot sheet price versus
what they actually sell for. A while ago Heritage had a total of 72 Barber dimes up and 3 of them
were 1907-D's in 65. With a greysheet price of $3500 one sold on the 'bay last year for $1080!
I was trying out a new bot at the time and my bid of $1777 was not recognized. I will admit
the 1899-S is more common in 64-65 than prices suggest. I just picked up an NGC in 4 that is
fully PL (not noted on slab) for almost 30% back of bid.

It's great to hear that others can be as obsessive on one series as I am. I still put a G-VG
set up on the wall every year and continue to upgrade my toned XF+ set. I'm not quite
up to Casey's league yet but headed in that direction. Thanks for all the input!!

Steve

Patches

Thanks for sharing, I have a small interest in Barber Dimes...and it is nice always learning a bit more