say, VG to VF, or perhaps up to XF for some of them. They seem to be pretty hard to locate. Such coins as the 1892-O Barber Half, or the 1914-S Barber Quarter, or the 1895 Dime. How scarce are they? Are they widely available at all? The auction services seldom list them, nor do the major dealers that I am aware of. On the other hand, that makes them, from my point of view, fun to collect, since they are cheap enough to be affordable, but scarce enough to be worthy of seeking. I seldom even see some of them listed in XF-BU 62, alothough that price would place them outside of the budget I allow myself for hobbies.
I have been looking for some nice mid grade ones myself, it seems that there are tons of them in ag and g and there are more in au and ms, seems to me more than there are in f-ef
It took me perhaps five years to put this set together in original VF with a few F or EF coins in the mix. The time to really buy these was 2005 or before and since that time the prices have skyrocketed. There has also recently been a run on PCGS certified coins in mid-grades and these coins are selling for more than they are worth, in my opinion. In other words, buying heavily into the PCGS certified pool for this series in this grade range will not return great value, again in my opinion. I wrote a feature article for Coin World and Coin Values that was published in 2005 and dealt heavily with collecting mid-grade Barber half dollars. Most of the coins used in their grading guide were from me, too. Truly, any completely original, strictly VF or better Barber half dollar is a tough nut to crack. You can find them raw at shows and might get lucky and pay Greysheet, but I would not count on doing that all the time. There are also at least 10 or so really killer dates that are much tougher than any price guide would suggest.
A well known dealer from PA, an advertiser in Coin World, whom I will not name here, advertises many of them in his price list, but those which I have bought from him were very much over-graded, often more than one grade over-graded, and I would advise anyone seeking them to avoid him. Therefore, I have decided to simply be patient, and deal only with dealers whose mechandise matches their ads, even if it takes me several years to fill the sets. I do sometimes see some of them auctioned at Heritage, and have obtained a couple, at cheaper prices than at most dealers.
samsara Nice good luck on your search. And, yes those dates, among others are very tough to find. Altho, the 1892 O $1/2 is easier than the others. The 1914 S quarter is really tough! I have only ever seen one in VF, and it is now off the market--- in my collection. None higher, without poroblems that is. And the 1895 P is there-- but good luck finding it. I have only ever seen one-- a VF and that was in 2003. I won it, and have never found another. But I do have one unc-- an AMACS MS-61. Only one that I have ever seen.
Tom can probably attest to the fact that one of our cohorts on the NGC forums is a big collector of Barber coinage in all denominations. Hardly a week goes by when he doesn't post coin after coin after coin of new acquisitions in mostly AU/BU grades, but I have no idea what he pays for them. Chris
Check the posts of "Elbesaar". http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2061202#Post2061202 PS. I forgot to mention that this is an ongoing thread that dates back to 12/07. The most current pages are in the back.
Any Barber in mid grades is going to be hard to find especially when take into consideration survival rates for the series. When you do come across one you need to snap it up. I have been working on a higher grade set of dimes for over 5 years now and still have 4 dates left to fill, and that is only because I settled for a few of the keydates in VG. The halves are that much tougher as it was the work horse coin of its day. Larger shows are the place to look, and even then you will have trouble finding key dates that aren't AG/G or MS. Your best bet is to just keep searching and be patient, the thrill of the hunt as it were.
Oh, and you can look up the rarity rating based on surveys through www.barbercoins.org which is home to the Barber Coin Collectors' Society.
The only Barber Half I owned is a raw 1892-S in VF20. All letters in LIBERTY are clear. Slight scratch on the neck. My Godfather give it to me back in 1961. These coins are very tough raw in F-EF.
Try to find a 1909-O Quarter in VF to AU condition... then try to find it for anywhere close to price guide prices. p.s. you'd be very lucky to find one and if you do, it'll cost you 2x to 6x even the PCGS Price Guide. if you know of any being sold at greysheet or even pcgs guide prices, I'll buy them all today!
Coincidence? Do you see any causal linkage between the article (and the forum talk) and the rising prices? Before you get the wrong idea, I'm not suggesting any type of promotion, but rather wonder just how much price pressure can be placed by these incidents (article & forum talk). My gut says, having seen a few similar runs in the past five years, that they may be related -- but I'd really love your (or anyone else's) take....Mike
I hadn't thought of a relation between the two, but there certainly could have been a boost to the series after the issue. Perhaps I should write something stating that these are easy as pie and highly overpriced and overrated?hya:
I have been working on a raw Barber half dollar set in a Dansco album. It has been a long haul but I still have 13 coins left to get. The missing 13 are all older than 1900. When you get down to just needing a dozen or so to finish the set they are very tough.
Whenever something is advertised as "tough", "difficult" or "challenging"; a certain cadre of enthusiasts will take up the challenge. Over the last couple decades I've experienced this several times in my fishing pursuits. An area we had relatively to ourselves wouild be written about in a national mag and presto the crowds come. Oh well, like coin collecting, the pursuit is as much or more fun than the conclusion.
