Barber Quarter

History

The Mint Act of 1890 let the Treasury Department change a coin design after 25 years without a further act of Congress, and the Seated Liberty dime, quarter and half dollar all became eligible in 1891, which is why the three denominations came to share one obverse. Mint Director Edward O. Leech first approached ten prominent American sculptors, but when they asked to be paid for every entry rather than only the winning one, the contest was thrown open to the public in a circular issued April 4, 1891 with a June 1 deadline and a single $500 prize. Judging fell to Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber, Boston engraver Henry Mitchell and Augustus Saint-Gaudens; of roughly 300 submissions only two earned an honorable mention, and Leech called the competition a wretched failure before assigning the work to Barber himself. Barber's patterns were struck as half dollars, since the quarter reverse would be nearly identical and the dime reverse was not to change, and President Benjamin Harrison laid them before his full cabinet on November 5, 1891, which chose the devices Leech preferred. Coining began January 2, 1892 and the type ran through the middle of 1916.

Details

Charles Edward Barber, sixth Chief Engraver of the Mint, cut the dies. Born in London in 1840, he was the son of fifth Chief Engraver William Barber, served as his assistant, and succeeded him on his father's death in 1879; the dime, quarter, half dollar and the Liberty Head nickel are all his. Quarters came from Philadelphia without a mintmark and from New Orleans and San Francisco from the start of the series, with Denver joining in 1906 and striking through 1916. The smallest circulation-strike mintage of the run is the 1913-S at 40,000 pieces, followed by the 1901-S at 72,664. Proofs were made across the series, and examples with cameo and deep cameo contrast have been certified.

Features

The obverse carries a right-facing Liberty in a Phrygian cap and laurel wreath tied with a bow at the back, a small band above the forehead inscribed LIBERTY, and a portrait treatment close to George Morgan's dollar head though with more hair concealed by the cap. Inside a denticulated rim, IN GOD WE TRUST arcs above and the date sits below, separated by six-pointed stars, six at the left and seven at the right, with Barber's initial B in the truncation of the neck just above the start of the date. The motto appears from the first year of issue rather than being added later. Both hubs were revised in 1900, and the LIBERTY headband on the new obverse is less sharply incised, so the letter count long used to grade circulated Barber quarters must be read with the later dates in mind. Recognized varieties are few: doubled-die obverses for 1892 and 1892-O and a repunched mintmark for 1916-D.

Notable facts

• Although the 1913-S has the lower mintage, the 1901-S is the prime rarity among circulation strikes, largely because collectors of the day had not yet taken to saving coins by mintmark.
• No more than 40 or 50 Uncirculated 1901-S quarters are believed to survive.
• A 1901-S offered in the D. Brent Pogue Part VII sale brought $180,000.
• Augustus Heaton's 1893 monograph on branch-mint coinage prompted a few dozen collectors to order pieces directly from the mints, which accounts for much of the Mint State survival from the early dates.
• Mint State and Gem Barber quarters are scarcer than the dimes and half dollars of the same design and frequently show bagmarks; prooflike business strikes have also been certified.
• Untouched circulated examples are very scarce for branch-mint dates before about 1906, and harshly cleaned coins are rejected by most grading services.
• David Lawrence's The Complete Guide to Barber Quarters, second edition published in 1994, is the standard specialist reference.
• Added S mintmarks transferred to Philadelphia coins are a known deception on the 1901 quarter, and counterfeit-detection work has been published on the 1896-S.