While looking at Barber Dimes I can't help but wonder if the series isn't for the light hearted (or light budget). On Ebay I find handfuls galore of them being cleaned in some manner, making finding original surfaces very difficult for the grade I want (F-XF though will gladly settle for lower in key dates). Even when I do find an original surface dime, the prices seem almost unreal for even some of the common dates. Am I too grandiose in my plans if I go for all original surfaces/grade, or maybe I'm just too timid in the purchases. Just looking for insight in Barber Dime pricing and potential difficulty of collection for original surfaces and appreciate any advice. Thanks!
Your going to have a rough time if you plan on making a set of barber dimes. Just glancing through the red book, there are many expensive dates and mint marks. The 1895-O is at least $300, several others are $80+. Besides I never liked sets. You see rows and rows of the exact same coin, gets rather boring if you ask me. I think it would be better if you put together a barber TYPE set. The dime, quarter, and half dollar. Not a very expensive challenge either,
Of the three "Barber" series, the dime should be the most easily completed. There are no true stoppers as long as you are committed to a longterm collection. The quarters have an enormous stopper (1901-S) and two other pieces that are tough on most wallets (1896-S and 1913-S) while the half dollars have a seemingly endless stream of difficult to near impossible to find coins in certain grades. The dimes can be done; it is just a matter of if you think they are worth it for your wallet.
Been there, done that, sold 'em. You can complete half of the set in VF for under $500 and with time you can cherry pick the good-uns. Now I wasn't looking for choice surfaces and that can be a problem for the keys & semi-keys, but it's a fun series. Take your time with these and you'll have a very beautiful, albeit perpetually incomplete set.....unless you already have an 1894-S
I've been picking up random 19th century proofs lately. Here's a Barber Dime... I would love to finish the proof series, but that may take a while.
I kind of agree with Detecto on this one. There are some sets that are quite lofty and you had better either have a real big boy job or just have deep pockets to complete. The mercury dimes are tough enough so I can only imagine the Barbers. I like to pick out years that are significant to me and build type sets around that particular year. Currently I am working on 2 different year sets similar to how i described with a possible 3rd budding. I am working on an 1892 set with higher grade cleaned coins. Why you might ask did i put together a set of cleaned coins? Easy, my grandfather gave me an 1892 Barber half that was in an old ANACS holder that was AU-Details grade, in that same lot he gave me about 7 other coins of which 2 were raw 1892 Barber quarters, once they came back from NGC they too were AU-Details due to cleaning, but now I had a dilemma, what to do with my grandfathers coins, and how to build on it. So i set out to find some other cleaned 1892 coins. I now have: 1892 Indian Head Cent AU-Details (Bent) 1892 Barber Dime AU-Details (Cleaned) Still beautiful coin though 1892 Barber Quarter AU-Details (Cleaned) 1892-O Barber Quarter AU-Details (Cleaned) 1892 Barber Half Dollar AU-Details (Cleaned) Net Grade EF-45 One of my all time favorites 1892 Columbian Exposition Half XF-Details (Cleaned) 1892 Morgan Dollar XF-Details (Cleaned) Waiting on arrival The only 1892 Coin I am missing is the 'V' Nickel and it just seems there arent very many of those sent in to be graded let alone coming back as XF/AU-Details grade. So I may purchase a nice AU/BU example and improperly clean it on purpose to send it for my set, but thats if i dont find one in the next 3-5 years or so, not in any hurry, but one way or another I will complete this set for most circulating coins from 1892! I am also working on a problem free set from 1909 in AU-MS grades, this was a nice transition year and isnt a very difficult set to complete aside from the Gold issues. The $10 and $20 Eagles will hold me for a while on this set, but I dont have any stupid Commemorative Halves to slow me down either, which was just by pure happenstance, as I only chose 1909 since it was the founding year of my fraternity. The other year set I am working on and it will probably be the most difficult and something i will work on for many years to come is an 1833 set. I havent decided on the grade to pursue, or done much research on the availability of the coins, but I have a beautiful 1833 half-cent and recently ran across a nice Capped Bust Half from the same year, so im likely to go that route one day. Thats to go along with all my other sets to complete, but its nice to have several areas to fill in and keep things interesting.
Thanks so far for all the advice. I will say that I'm willing to try the series and I really like series collecting. It's just when I started to look seriously on Ebay and the local coin shop everything appears cleaned and I just don't know if I want to lay down the money for a "problem coin," and didn't know if asking for original surfaces for a collection is just too much to ask for the age of the series (as many did clean coins in early collecting).
