"Charles & William Barber Wednesday!". Post yours as well....

It's the new thread, "Charles & William Barber Wednesday!". William was known for his design of the Trade Dollar and many medals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barber_(engraver)
Charles, known for the Barber series...." Barber's best known designs are the Liberty Head coins — Barber dime, Barber quarter, and Barber half dollar, as well as the so-called "V" Liberty Head nickel. Some lesser known pattern coin designs include the trial copper-nickel cent, trial three-cent piece, and the $4 Stella "Flowing Hair" pieces." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_E._Barber.
Here are a few examples.... Won't you post yours as well?

 

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Some of these are Morgan- Came from a set off all the last coins designed until they're death/Retirement?

 

Charles E. Barber.

 

Charles E. Barber

 

There's an entire Official Red Book on him and his designs.
Here's mine with 3 of my many metal detected Barber coins in the bottom part of the cover.

Half Dollar, Quarter and Dime

 

HK#426. Quite ruff condition, found in a mix of cull coins.

 

A fantasy piece from a Charles Barber design:

 

The 1899 has the reverse hub type of 1900-1901. It was an “early release” on around 2% of the 1899 Philly coins. Compare the main vein of the leftmost leaf and the corn kernels to other 1899 dimes and you’ll see the changes.

 

Charles Barber was also known for his temper and not suffering the fool. Mint Director Linderman died before he could fire him and replace him as Engraver with Morgan, but because of that not only do we have designs shown above, but we also have letters like this 6-page gem he wrote excoriating the New Orleans mint for not knowing what they were doing.

Mint of the United States at Philadelphia, Pa.,
ENGRAVER’S DEPARTMENT

November 2, 1888

Hon. Daniel M. Fox
Superintendent

Sir

The Standard Dollar dies condemned as being too soft and unfit for use and returned to this office by the Coiner of the United States Mint at New Orleans have been very carefully examined by myself and assistants in this department. I have also submitted the dies to the inspection of the Foreman of the coining room Mr. Downing. Also to Mr. James, Foreman of machine shop and both are of the opinion that the dies are properly tempered. I do not hesitate to say the dies are as good as can be made.

The question then is why are the dies complained of. My answer is they are victims of gross ignorance. Never in my life have I seen dies more abused.

In the first place they bear marked evidence of having been blanked, that is they have been allowed while in the press to come together without a planchet between them; dies are not expected to stand such usage. The dies have been put in the press in such a manner as to prove conclusively that the man who has handled them is not an intelligent mechanic and does not comprehend the work he is engaged upon. To be more explicit I must enter into detail which I think will convince you of the correctness of my statement, as it is so very clear to everyone in the least familiar with mechanical operations.

The dies are intended to come together squarely and perpendicularly; instead of this being the case, the dies have been filed on the bottom at an angle so that one side of the die is 1/16 of an inch longer than the other, thus throwing the dies 1/16 of an inch out of line at the striking point. You will see how this operates. The collar stands horizontally in the press the dies being 1/16 in. out of line instead of entering the collar in a perpendicular manner enter on an incline; this is of course equivalent to increasing the diameter, to overcome this the dies in order to be made enter the collar have been ground upon a common grindstone thus destroying partially the outer edge of the die and of course the flat border of the coin; under this treatment the neck of the die instead of being round is a succession of angles or facets.

The dies entering the collar on an incline instead of straight down cause a constant strain and friction on the collar and neck of the die, so much has this been the case that while the neck of the die is so hard a new Stubbs file will make no impression on it, the friction has been sufficient to emboss the neck of the die and leave an impression of the reeded collar plain and distinct.

You will also see the dies coming together on an incline instead of squarely, produces a grinding or slipping motion between the faces of the dies which is destructive to die and collar alike. All the points I have given are understood by mechanics to be[an] unnecessary and extraordinary strain upon both dies, collars and press, and should be remedied. I am astonished with such treatment the dies have coined any number worthy of mention. That the dies did not break out or crumble away on the edge but stood up and held together should convince anyone familiar with steel that the dies are well and properly tempered.

In all the dies with one exception (that being a cracked die) the radii still exists even with the harsh treatment they have received, proving clearly the man [at New Orleans] has not yet discovered why he could not coin.

To prove the trouble does not rest with the dies I gave condemned die No 86 obverse to the Coiner of this Mint with instructions to try it. (I am sorry on account of the initial of the Mint at New Orleans being on the reverse. I was not able to use a pair.) The report he makes this morning is: He has coined 450,000 pieces which is 77,693 more pieces than the best report ever made, and the die is still good for many more as can be seen at a moment’s glance; but not wishing to force a report I make the request that the die be taken out of the press.

In the year 1876 a like case occurred with the Mint at San Francisco, only in that case it was “Half Dollar” dies, a number of these dies were returned condemned as unfit for use. An obverse die was taken from among the number and run in the press at this Mint for 55 hours coining 264,000 pieces.

The remedy Dr. Linderman, then Director of the Mint adopted was simply this: he sent an experienced person from this Mint to teach them how to use a die when received from this Department. From that time to this we have had no more complaints of dies being improperly tempered or unfit for use.

I respectfully suggest that a like treatment of the Mint at New Orleans would prove beneficial.

Very respectfully
Chas. E. Barber
Engraver

This was first posted by Roger Burdette here on VAMWorld. If you scroll through, you'll eventually see the hand-written letter, along with others that led up to it.