Why did Barbers wear so well, but Ikes, and Washington Quarters, not so well.

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This picture is cuz I don’t own any of the title mentioned

 

Ike dollars are from the 70s and Washington quarters are from the 30s-now. Barbers were produced in the 1890s for a few decades.

Its because they are older.

 

Maybe because Barber was a fanatic about coin designs withstanding certain conditions he felt practical for coins, and ruled over the mint with an iron fist.

 

A worn Ike dollar coin is a scarce thing to find. The majority of these coins never got into circulation.

 

Not scarce. Ikes were KILLED in the slot machines in huge numbers.

 

Funny, but I think they all wore so well.........

[Now why are my pants so tight?]

 

Do you suppose that maybe there were people working in the mint who actually cared about the quality of the coins produced rather than the quantity?

 

No doubt about it. This was just taken from a mint set, and the other 4 coins are just as bad

 

I get the impression Barber approached his craft as one part engineer and one part artist. As such, his designs were engineered to withstand the rigors of commerce and hold up. Even in AG-3, the devices, dates and lettering all survive pretty well.

The merits of his artistic ability are often called into question but he did a fine job of designing utilitarian money.

 

He was meticulous especially about the hair, he was a Barber, tee-hee. Come on, smile, it won't break your face... Have a happy day!

 

This is just my opinion, but I think it is in part due to modern machines. Barbers spent a lot of time naturally circulating. Whereas modern coinage gets put thru coin counters and sorting machines regularly. In big facilities one of the first steps in coin sorting and counting is washing the coins in detergents. Thus, modern coins tend to get harshly cleaned a multitude of times during their lifetime.

 

I sure am glad you added that. I was thinking maybe you were on lots of happy juice.

 

Why did they wear the way they did? Could be due to the purity of the alloy they used?

 

the way the fields and design are engraved on the coin.

 

This is true, at least in part. And certainly the engineering of the design was a factor. There is also what might be termed the velocity of circulation. In the 1800s commerce as a whole was slower. A given coin would be spent less times in a year than the same denomination in the 1940s or 1950s or even 1960s. Half dollars especially were very high denomination coins and spent a lot of time sitting in bank vaults in the 1800s. The silver Washington quarters were at a time when quarters were a major denomination for daily transactions. You could buy a burger and drink for a quarter, or see a movie. By the 1960s inflation was making that less so, but vending machines still sold a coke for a dime or at most a quarter. The modern clad coins seem to last forever, in part because they are harder than the silver coins, but also the circulation demands for them have slowed because of plastic and electronic transactions. Many of the coins sit for years in jars where people dump the change they do get. When I was a kid in the 1960s I wrapped coins at a bank for extra spending money, and searched the bags first. In the early 1960s a 1930s quarter or dime was usually no better than VG, occasionally F. That is 25-30 years of circulation. Today, I frequently see a 1965 quarter in VF or better, seldom worse unless it has spent time "on the road." That's 56 years of "circulation." Nickels, being harder, lasted longer. In the early 1960s late buffaloes, 1935-38, were common in VF and sometimes in XF.

 

While this is all nice in theory, I don't think that really factors into it. Barbar designs just wore better because attention was paid to what was to be the high areas and what was lower. Your Buffalo nickel, for example was a disaster for wear and many dates are scarce because they have no dates. That is just part of the troubles. Washington Quarters just don't have enough differentiation in the hair from the face, and don't even discuss the eagle design ... etc etc. Then there is these huge fields in the half and dollars.... just waiting to get clanged and dinged and wacked. The Steps in the Jeff Nickel, and the windows? No change to survive.

 

Well, I have a totally different take and experience. Almost every Barber this/that I've ever found in circ (back when you could find them in circ...in the late 50s/60s a little bit) and at garage/estate sales/auctions, etc. right up to today, has been nearly worn flat, barely/hardly discernable past the date and such. I have three Barbers to my name and none more than G-VG...likely why I wasn't much of a fan/collector of Barbers growing up, plus better/higher-grade examples were/are EXPENSIVE. Oh, well...can't collect them all, anyway...had to focus on some favs and Barber's just didn't cut it for me (no pun intended).

 

I agree that Barber quarters were engineered better. And yes, the dates wore off buffalo nickles quickly, as did those on SL quarters, especially the early ones. Barber coins usually have to be pretty worn before the date is gone. As for the steps and windows on Jefferson nickels, this was definitely a design flaw, and many were already missing when they were struck. That is why the FS designation is so sought after.

But engineering was not the only factor. For one thing, the series only lasted 24 years and was quickly removed by collectors. I don't know where Mac was looking, but in my years of wrapping coins for a bank, from about 1961-65, I never found a Barber anything, even though AG to VG 1916 Mercury dimes were not uncommon. We got our coins from the Federal Reserve in bags of $1000 for the silver ones, and I probably looked through about three or four hundred thousand silver coins. (There was one hoard of halves brought in to the bank that contained mostly WLs and some Barbers, but the man who hoarded them had done so since the Depression because he didn't trust banks or paper. His heirs found the box under his bed. I didn't actually see the Barbers, so I don't know their condition.)

Again, the amount and type of circulation definitely makes a difference. I doubt Barbers in the 1800s were often put into vending machines or mechanical counters, which became common in the 20th Century.