Some may recall many months back - I posted about a possible reverse design change concerning the Barber Half. Most notable the right side banner and "E PLURIBIS". Since that time I have analyzed the images of 388 different Barber Halves ranging from the dates 1892 through 1907. Indications are this change occurred in 1901 and the transition continued through at least 1904. I found occurrences of both reverses in each year during this period. Also while analyzing these coin images I noted a few other minor design deviations between the possible two different reverse hubs. I am also providing images illustrating these differences. I analyzed all the coins using a CAD System - Computer Aided Design System. Specifically TurboCad. I created a map of each reverse design in CAD. Merged the two maps together creating a single map containing both reverse designs. I then imported the coin images into my CAD workspace and overlaid the combined map onto each coin. I am providing a distribution of my results with this post. I am not a Barber Coin expert. Really not an expert on any specific series of coinage. Just an interested general collector. Therefore I am hesitant to make any confirmation concerning the existence of two different reverse design hubs used for minting the Barber Half series. Let me know what you think.
I think this is the kind of analysis I imagine myself doing, if I had (a) ambition and (b) time-management skills. I went off to check against a few Barber halves I'd imaged for sale or documentation, and there were no surprises: 1894-O: type I 1898-S counterfeit(!): type I, but an imperfect fit, just like all the rest of the coin's features 1901-S: type I 1904-S: type II 1909-S: type II If you haven't already been in contact with them, the Barber Coin Collectors' Society would certainly be interested in this. There was a guy at last weekend's big show with THE biggest selection of slabbed F-AU Barber halves I've ever seen. I don't know where you've been looking for your images, but if you haven't yet come across his corner of eBay, he sells under amwldcoins. All he has listed right now are seven 1901-S coins -- but the first one, here, looks to me to be a Type II! He also has one other one in G that appears to be Type II. He also sells here on usacoinbook.com, and it looks like he has a lot more examples listed there. I haven't started digging through them, though. (I'm going mostly by beak drapery and banner end as I look at these. For whatever reason, I can't seem to keep the two S shapes straight in my head -- they look different in your images, but when I look at a new image, it seems like I can often map it to either example, at least visually.)
Added bonus for those that didn't see my post in one of Jack's previous threads. The FS-901 DDR counterfeit thread caused me to look at Barber Quarters closer. Learned that over the course of the issue two different obverse master hubs were used. According to BCCS the Type II obverse exhibited extra cartilage in the ear. upon examination I discovered the following. Which in my opinion is a lot easier pick-up for differentiating between the two. Barber Quarter OBV 1 and OBV 2
