Barber dollar !!??!?

Let's recall there were two Barbers - William and his son Charles. William did the Trade dollar. Charles did the Barber dimes, quarters, and halves.

William the elder died in January 1879.

The piece in question on this thread was designed by William (apparently shortly before his death).

 

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Charles also did the V Nickel.

On the other hand if you find some old coin folders it is possible to find ones for the dime, quarter, and half issued from 1892 to 1916 that identify the coins as Morgan dimes, quarters, and halves. (Based on the fact that the profiles of the coins from the two designers are VERY similar, just facing opposite directions

 

Kind of resembles what the image on the obverse of the Barber and the Morgan combined would look like!
I like it, and I want it
Very nice piece, thank you for sharing!

 

Awesome coin(scratch out) pattern.

 

I read a story somewhere about Charles Barber and how he really didn't appreciate any other designers being allowed to design coins for the mint. I think he was too young when Morgan designed the dollar, but didn't he nearly go to war when TR invited outsiders in to freshen up our coinage?

Barber was more concerned about production than design. He was extremely technically competent. Even when his designs got worn down to the nub you could still make out the dates and central devices. This was not true of later coinage, like buffalo nickels and SL quarters. Barber coinage is like Seated Liberty, you really need to see a nice example to appreciate them, too many people just see the worn out ones and think the designs are ugly.

 

Charles Barber was five years OLDER than Morgan (Barber born 1840, Morgan 1845)

I'm not sure I wold call it going to war, but he did make a lot of objections and point out a lot of the problems with the designs. But he also tried to work with the designers to fix the problems. Usually though the designers had no interest in having the problems "fixed". And merely complained about the mint's "interference".

Yes he was technically competent. He understood completely how a coin should be produced so as to maximize die life and strike up well. He just wasn't a real good artist. But it is because of him that the coins introduced between 1907 and 1916 worked out as well as they did. I am kind of surprised though that he didn't catch the date problem with the nickel and the standing quarter. maybe with the nickel he was just getting sick and tired of fighting with the designers, and in the case of the quarter maybe he was just to old and sick to care that much anymore. The quarter was produced in late Dec 1916 and came out in Jan 1917. Barber died in February.

 

Different Barber. The pattern in the image was designed by William Barber; the coins we all know as Barbers were designed by his son Charles. I think William had most of the talent in the family.

William Barber also designed the Trade Dollar and the Twenty Cent piece.

 

Of course, Morgan dimes, quarters, and halves DO exist:

Judd-1588

Judd-1593

Judd-1506. (There are a lot of Morgan half dollar varieties...)

Moral: Patterns are cool.

 

Yes but I seriously doubt if Whitman (or whoever was making them) was making cardboard "push in" type folders for THOSE Morgan dimes and halves.

 

I'll guarantee that if they did they'd be collectible even without the coins.

 

Excellent points all Conder. My point about age of the younger Barber was that he was not yet in control of the mint more, and didn't have as much say then as he did later. Later it pretty much took a President to push the changes through. I still feel Barber's design, though not as artistic as later ones, were outstanding commercial coin designs.

Thank you very much for your further elucidations though. I was going from memory and the last time I read much about US coinage was 20 years ago.

 

Those Morgan patterns have reverse designs that look very 'German', or even 'European' in design.

No point, just making an observation that I have German coins with reverses very similar.

 

Having a "European" flavor would not be too surprising since Morgan was not an American. He was British and had just recently arrived in the United States. And Great Britaln had been ruled by German Princes since the early 1700's. (The first three George's were actually more fluent in German than in English. George I never bothered to learn the language at all.) If it hadn't been for the fact that Hannoverian law forbid a woman ruler the English queen at the time would have also been the queen of the German province as well