This raw VG-F Barber half collection in a Dansco #7150 album was begun around Christmas of 2010. My minimum grade for this set was Very Good (VG8), with at least a letter or two in "LIBERTY" visible. When I could, I tried to get as close to Fine (F12) condition (with a full "LIBERTY" on the headband) as possible, without actually paying the premium for F12 coins. Another goal was to limit myself to original grey or grey-brown coins. I was after coins with "The Look". It's hard to explain exactly what "The Look" is, but you collectors of circulated Barber coinage will know what I mean by that. It's sort of like what I refer to as "Circulation Cameo" (CircCam) coins, with darker fields and lighter devices, but these aren't always true CircCams. Let's just say it's the wholesome look of a coin that did plenty of time in circulation, but was otherwise not messed with too much. Not all of my coins below have "The Look", but this was an unfinished work. One added bonus besides the relative affordability of VG coins was that circulated silver like this actually came out looking (mostly) OK on my old scanner, so I didn't have the photography woes my substandard camera skills usually caused. Almost all of these images were done on a scanner, though in a few cases I posted the original sellers' photos. On to the album, or at least as far as I got with it. (I did not complete the set, but did well when I sold it, so looking out for nice original coins at a good price worked out well.)
Page 1 of the album 1892-P Mintage 934,000. 1892-O Mintage 390,000. 1892-S Mintage 1,029,028. 1893-P Mintage 1,826,000. "L....TY" shows. Ex-"Collectorcoins" (Collectors Universe). 1893-O Mintage 1,389,000. 1893-S Mintage 740,000. 1894-P Mintage 1,148,000. 1894-O Mintage 2,138,000. 1894-S Mintage 4,048,690. ".....TY" shows. Ex-"thecoinlook" (Collectors Universe). 1895-P Mintage 1,834,338. 1895-O Mintage 1,766,000. 1895-S Mintage 1,108,086. 1896-P Mintage 950,000. 1896-O Mintage 924,000. 1896-S Mintage 1,140,948. Full "LIBERTY" shows but "..BER.." is soft. Ex-"dogwood" (Collectors Universe). 1897-P Mintage 2,480,000. 1897-O Mintage 632,000. 1897-S Mintage 933,900. 1898-P Mintage 2,956,000. "L....TY" shows. Ex-"thecoinlook" (Collectors Universe). 1898-O Mintage 874,000.
Page 2 of the album 1898-S Mintage 2,358,000. 1899-P Mintage 5,538,000. "LI...TY" shows. Ex-"Ajia" (Collectors Universe) 1899-O Mintage 1,724,000. 1899-S Mintage 1,686,411. 1900-P Mintage 4,762,000. "LI...TY" shows. Ex-"Collectorcoins" (CU). 1900-O Mintage 2,744,000. 1900-S Mintage 2,560,322. 1901-P Mintage 4,268,000. "LI...TY" shows, with "..BER.." partial. Ex-"guitarwes" (CU). 1901-O Mintage 1,124,000. 1901-S Mintage 847,044. I got rid of this one because it didn't have "The Look". 1902-P Mintage 4,922,000. "LI...TY" shows, with "..BER.." partial. Ex-"Collectorcoins" (Collectors Universe). 1902-O Mintage 2,526,000. "L....TY" shows. Ex-"thecoinlook" (Collectors Universe). 1902-S Mintage 1,460,670. "LI...TY" shows, with "..BER.." partial. Ex-"Ajia" (Collectors Universe). 1903-P Mintage 2,278,000. 1903-O Mintage 2,100,000. 1903-S Mintage 1,920,772. "Y" shows, with "L" and "T" partial. Ex-"guitarwes" (CU). 1904-P Mintage 2,992,000. 1904-O Mintage 1,117,600. 1904-S Mintage 553,038. 1905-P Mintage 662,000.
Page 3 of the album 1905-O Mintage 505,000. 1905-S Mintage 2,494,000. "LI...TY" shows, with "..BER.." partial. Ex-"Ajia" (Collectors Universe). 1906-P Mintage 2,638,000. "LI...TY" shows, with "B" and "R" partial. Ex-"Collectorcoins" (Collectors Universe). 1906-D Mintage 4,028,000. 1906-O Mintage 2,446,000. 1906-S Mintage 1,740,154. 1907-P Mintage 2,598,000. Full "LIBERTY" shows, but "BER" is weak. Ex-"thecoinlook" (Collectors Universe). 1907-D Mintage 3,856,000. "LI...TY" shows, with "R" partial. Ex-"Ajia" (Collectors Universe). 1907-O Mintage 3,946,600. "LI...TY" shows, with "R" partial. Ex-"guitarwes" (Collectors Universe). 1907-S Mintage 1,250,000. "L....TY" shows, with "I" partial. Ex-"thecoinlook" (Collectors Universe). 1908-P Mintage 1,354,000. 1908-D Mintage 3,280,000. "LI...TY" shows, with "ER" partial. Ex-"Collectorcoins" (CU). 1908-O Mintage 5,360,000. "LI...TY" shows. Ex-"thecoinlook" (CU). 1908-S Mintage 1,644,828. 1909-P Mintage 2,368,000. Full "LIBERTY" shows but "R" is a bit soft at the bottom. Ex-"Filamcoins" (Ccollectors Universe). Sold to "guitarwes", later repurchased. 1909-O Mintage 925,400. "LI...TY" shows, with "R" partial. Ex-"robkool" (Collectors Universe). 1909-S Mintage 1,764,000. Full "LIBERTY" shows, but "BER" is weak. Ex-"SurfinxHI" (CU). 1910-P Mintage 418,000. "LI...TY" shows, with "R" partial. Ex-"Collectorcoins" (CU). 1910-S Mintage 1,948,000. "LI...TY" shows, with "BER" partial. Ex-"mightyhunter" (Collectors Universe). 1911-P Mintage 1,406,000. "LI...TY" shows. Ex-"emaustreasures" (eBay).
Page 4 of the album 1911-D Mintage 695,080. "LI...TY" shows, with "ER" partial. Ex-"Ajia" (Collectors Universe). 1911-S Mintage 1,272,000. "LI....Y" shows, with "T" partial. Purchased in an ANACS VG8 slab. Ex-"allegri" (Collectors Universe). 1912-P Mintage 1,550,000. "LI...TY" shows. Ex-"Collectorcoins" (Collectors Universe). 1912-D Mintage 2,300,800. "LI...TY" shows, with "BER" partial. Ex-"guitarwes" (Collectors Universe). 1912-S Mintage 1,370,000. Full "LIBERTY" shows. I think this coin best epitomized "The Look" I sought in a circulated Barber half. Ex-"guitarwes" (Collectors Universe). 1913-P Mintage 188,000. "L" shows. Ex-"Collectorcoins" (Collectors Universe). 1913-D Mintage 534,000. "L....TY" shows, with "I" partial. Ex-"dmpl70" (eBay). 1913-S Mintage 604,000. "LI....Y" shows. Ex-"lcmud" (eBay). 1914-P Mintage 124,230. "LI...TY" shows, with "BER" partial. Ex-"SullyFan" (Collectors Universe, aka "sage5" on eBay). A nice, wholesome example of this key date. Seller's photos here. 1914-S Mintage 992,000. "LI...TY" shows, with "BER" partial. Ex-"Collectorcoins" (Collectors Universe). 1915-P Mintage 138,000. "LI...TY" shows. Ex-"29957blue" (eBay). 1915-D Mintage 1,170,400. "LI...TY" shows, with "BER" partial. Ex-"thecoinlook" (Collectors Universe). 1915-S Mintage 1,604,000. "LI...TY" shows. Ex-"guitarwes" (Collectors Universe).
OMG -- The Sticker King!!! (29957blue, aka "Zack's", used to post photos of coins in 2x2s covered with stickers. The one I remember is "Less than 3 pizzas!", referring to the price, not the amount of cheese in the ad, I think.) I remember getting annoyed at him because he'd spam hundreds (thousands?) of new listings in one batch, drowning out the stuff I was looking for. He certainly isn't the only one, though. I don't see his listings any more because he doesn't do BIN and I rarely search on anything else. I just had a look at his store, and it looks like he's taken the volume way down, and given up the stickers. I like your (ex-) collection. I completed my set a while back, but I wasn't nearly as discerning as you, so it's got quite a lot of problem coins, and very little consistency. I did send the two nicest ones to ANACS (the 1909-S got XF40, the 1901-S got XF40 details), and I've got a few in the VF range, but I've got quite a few slicks, especially for the early keys. Funny thing: most of them came in lots from eBay's coinsantiques.18, one of the eBay fronts for THR Associates before their spectacular implosion. So there's a little bit of ickiness attached to them, given that they were probably obtained through deceptive business practices -- but that kind of ick is pretty darn prevalent in our hobby, I'm afraid.
Ha! You're right! I had forgotten about that. Yes, the Crazy Sticker Guy sure did used to clutter up the categories, and I too would get annoyed with it, and the cheesy stuff the stickers said, like the "pizzanomics". That being said, they did have a good selection, so yeah... I ended up buying one from them. There is a certain seller who dominates the Love Tokens category, which is where my primary searches take place nowadays. He too has a nice (and huge) selection - often some really sweet pieces - but he prices stuff to the moon so it sits there for years, unsold, cluttering up the whole place. I've gotten a few choice pieces from him but paid dearly. He'll bend, but only a little. I've started excluding his listings from my searches. More than half the Love Tokens category is stagnant stuff that's been sitting there forever.
Thanks. Looking at them now, I think I could have been just a little more patient in selecting even better-matched pieces, but these did look good together in the album. One thing about filling holes in an album is I tend to go into a frenzy of hole-filling, and while I do have standards, they can slip a bit when I'm in an enthusiastic frenzy. I suppose that's all too human.
Cool set thanks for sharing. I've actually just decided to do something similar. I've recently had some success picking up some nicer barber halves for a decent price. I also have a Whitman folder for barber halves lying around so I figured why not start a set. An older gentleman who runs a coin and card operation from a local flea market gave me the Whitman folder a while back after buying some coins from him. I usually try to stop in and buy a coin from him a couple times a year because he's such a great guy. Always gives my daughter and I a little something extra when we stop in. I'm looking at the fine to extra fine range but may have to bend a little on the key and semi key dates due to the budget. I'm in no rush to complete the set so I can take my time though.
My set was the worst specimen with readable date and was downgraded every time I found a worse one. When there was nothing cheap left to get I parted it out through my coin club with starting bids at melt - 20 coins per month - and did surprisingly well. Most brought more than melt and some brought lots more. I noted that most I found were split grades. Some were AG on one side and VG on the other with the reverse suffering the heaviest wear. I've kept my worst of the best barber dime collection.
Exactly. That's why I swore off date sets. It became more about the holes than it was about the coins, and I didn't like that.
In 2013, I swore off set structure entirely. Now I'm living "freestyle". I collect what I want, not what some predetermined album or list tells me I have to collect. It has been very liberating. However, I will say that it took a very long time for me to come around to that philosophy, and it felt a bit like I was riding a bike without training wheels at first. It's taken me a while to trust my own judgment and instincts, and forge ahead into unexplored territory without being too terrified of making mistakes. So far so good.
I'm envious . . . I've not yet been able to go full "freestyle" but hope to follow in your foot steps one of these days. I'm still collecting mostly in broad groupings, but I was able to get a small taste of the freestyle life a couple of years ago. My son and I had worked our way through about 80% of a 20th century OFEC collection. Mostly nice UNC examples, but still just inexpensive modern base metal coins. He went off to college and lost interest, and I had no interest in completing it myself, so one day I went through all 200 or so coins and picked out about a dozen that struck my fancy — coins I'd like to have based on their own individual merits, not because they filled a hole for Zimbabwe or Slovenia or Vanuatu. The rest got shipped off to nephews and nieces and a couple of neighbors' kids. I have to admit, it was rather exhilarating, and I'm hoping to repeat the process some day soon with the US type set I know I'm never going to complete.
I still have temptations to do some structured sets. Structure can at least give you a feeling that you're progressing towards some goal. Funny you mention OFEC. That was the last structured set idea that tugged at me most recently. Actually I was going to do OFEY, in silver, but didn't get far. (Since we're on the US Coins forums and some folks are undoubtedly scratching their heads over that acronym, I'll explain: OFEC = "One From Each Country" and OFEY = "One From Each Year".)
Ha! I think it's just human nature to want to complete things. You can suppress it, but you can't ever entirely rid yourself of it. The one set I don't think I would ever consider abandoning is my British Empire collection, because that one is driven more by my interest in the history behind the coins than by the coins themselves.