When I began collecting coins in fourth grade, I really got the bug, and soon took this new hobby of mine seriously. Like several of my friends I started with Lincoln cents, and I assembled most of the collection by sixth grade. Then a major event in my young numismatic life occurred when I visited my grandparents in Arkansas during a summer vacation. My grandfather gave me an old coin for my collection. It was a 1911-S Barber dime. It was only a Good+ coin, but it still retained enough meat on it to be interesting, and it was a coin that my grandfather had culled from circulation not too long before I was born. A second dime, a 1904-P given soon thereafter, was the clincher.

Those two coins got me started in Barbers, and I haven’t looked back since. By the time I began high school I had a complete year set of Barber dimes, along with most of the later mintmarked coins. Putting this set together took time and some real work, and it was a project I enjoyed. In those days only one or two dealers advertising in publications mentioned Barbers, and the coins didn’t show up at my local shop very often either. As my album filled up, I loved showing this set to other friends who collected coins. It was something different than everyone else’s collection!

Barber coins were real workhorses in their time. Dimes, quarters, and half dollars were all used heavily in commerce, perhaps more so than any other coins that came before them. They had another big attraction for me: They hold up well to wear, and look quite decent even down to a grade of Very Good. This is great for Barber collectors. Many other coin designs don’t keep their attractiveness nearly as long. This means a collector with a limited budget can build a collection of lower-grade Barbers and still have an attractive set to appreciate. My dimes were a typical example of that.

As I grew older, I bought a bag of 90 percent silver coins that consisted of mostly worn-out Barber quarters, but included numerous VG coins, with even a couple of Fine and Very Fine coins mixed in. At the time there were no good comprehensive references on Barbers of any denomination. I relied solely on my Red Book, as a general guide. The more I examined my quarters, the more I got hooked on them. I began building a new collection! This presented a greater challenge than the dimes, as the Red Book clearly showed the quarter series has three clear key dates: the 1896-S, the 1913-S, and the king, 1901-S. Even outside the three key dates, there would be some tough coins, as well as rewards for a diligent collector. The 1914-S quarter, not even one of the keys, has the same low mintage as the famous 1916-D Mercury dime. However, it can be bought at a small fraction of the Mercury dime’s cost. What a bargain!

A huge day for me was when I acquired a 1901-S in VG. It was my first four-figure coin, and at $1,650, seemed like a good buy. That would turn out to be an understatement (today it’s closer to being a $10,000 coin). Over the years I upgraded each piece (sometimes more than once), and now my Extremely Fine to Mint State quarter set is a highlight in my collection.

THE SPECIAL APPEAL OF BARBER SILVER COINS

The magic of the silver Barbers is that each of the three series has its own special and unique characteristics that make it great, and also make it different from the other two.

Building a set of dimes is a goal that is eminently attainable, with the key date 1895-0 and numerous semi-keys providing a real challenge, regardless of the grade range you’re collecting. And of course the dime series boasts one of the legendary rarities in U.S. numismatics—the 1894-S dime, a coin that even the sixth-grader version of me was aware of. Even though it wasn’t a regular issue, and is not needed for the “complete set,” its presence in the series adds to the fun of collecting.

The quarters have the “Big Three” issues which are very scarce, even in low grades, and provide a daunting challenge in any grade above Very Good. To me, however, the beauty of the quarter series is the huge challenge faced by anyone building a set in higher circulated grades, where many >semi-keys, not just the three keys, are very difficult to obtain.

The halves are larger pieces of silver, and, while posing a higher cost of entry than the other two series, are quite possibly the easiest Barber set to complete in lower grades. Although the halves do not have rare dates of the magnitude of the Big Three quarters, the series is loaded with semi-key issues that require time and dedication to acquire, especially in higher grades.

WELCOMING A NEW GENERATION OF COLLECTORS

In the early 1990s I discovered the David Lawrence Complete Guide books on the Barbers. When I met Dave in person, he introduced me to the Barber Coin Collectors’ Society (BCCS). My passion for Barber coins only increased, and I gained more knowledge about the three series than I ever could have imagined.

Nearly 25 years later, no new comprehensive references on Barbers were on the shelves, other than a few books focused solely on varieties. Then Dave Bowers began a new book, A Guide Book of Barber Silver Coins.

This brought together the latest information on these great coins and made it available to a wide group of new collectors. It provided these collectors with a comprehensive reference on all three series, all in one place. Another enjoyable facet of the Guide Book of Barber Silver Coins is that it puts these important coins in historical context, with anecdotes from the era in which they were made, and the many decades thereafter that they were used in day-to-day commerce.

When Dave Bowers solicited my assistance and that of the BCCS for our thoughts on the date-by-date coin analysis, we were honored and thrilled to help. His goals are consistent with the mission of the Barber Coin Collectors’ Society: to introduce a new generation of collectors to Barbers, and to provide the needed information to fuel their passion for these important and wonderful coins.

I hope you enjoy these impressive coins, understand their historical significance, and appreciate the numismatic challenge as much as I have. Happy collecting!

Like most numismatists of my generation, I discovered the hobby of collecting coins through the Lincoln cent series. My introduction occurred at a very tender age, around six or seven, and I have my older brother Doug to thank for that. In the early 1960s coin collecting was all the rage, and it seems that every boy (and a few girls) were eagerly trying to fill their Whitman folders with Lincoln cents from 1909 to 1940 (No. 9004) and from 1941 onward (No. 9030). These folders were perhaps the most familiar tools of the coin hobby at the time, and competition to be the first to complete either one was keen in every American neighborhood.

Most young hobbyists soon tired of the pursuit and moved on to other interests, and my brother was no exception. I was gifted his partially filled Whitman folders and his one-volume library, which consisted of the 1964 Whitman Blue Book. Since that day, I have never known a time when I was not either fully consumed with numismatics or, as during high school, at least keeping it in my peripheral vision.

As a child, I eagerly pestered everyone I could find to examine their pocket change and their “penny jars” that each household seemed to keep. I managed to add several missing coins to the collection, but it became evident that the best years of cent hunting were already past. Soon I hit a wall, and only the newly released issues were being acquired. Additional folders were acquired for Buffalo and Jefferson nickels, Mercury and Roosevelt dimes, and even Washington quarters, though that series really cut into my candy and model-kit funds. Still yearning to add more Lincolns to my stalled collection, I made my very first numismatic purchase: a 1914 cent in Good condition for 75 cents—the same value it carries today in the Red Book! This exchange occurred at the coin-and-stamp counter in the local F.W. Woolworth store, and the very fact that old coins could be bought at general retail stores itself brings on a wave of nostalgia for a time long past.

When it seemed that this costly course would be my only hope of adding to my Lincoln collection, a miracle occurred. Our next-door neighbor Bob, who seemed to have every hobby under the sun, came over to our house bringing along daughter Robin and his home-built coin cabinet stuffed with plastic tubes full of coins. His job included emptying the parking meters along San Francisco’s waterfront, and he very carefully bought anything old or interesting that people had stuffed into these machines. In his hobby box he had tubes of such exotic fare as Shield nickels, Liberty Seated dimes, and three-cent pieces. But, most importantly, he had a tube for every date in the Lincoln cent series from 1909 through 1940. That evening he very thoughtfully filled most of the remaining openings in my Whitman folder, leaving only about half a dozen slots for the key dates. This magical occasion was captured on film by my brother, who had just received a camera for his birthday, and I cherish both that image and my memory of the experience. Included in this photo is my father standing behind me with a warm smile, the same one he has today in his early 90s.

It would be another 45 years before I finally finished that circulated collection of Lincoln cents with the purchase of the key 1909-S V.D.B. In the meantime, I’d already completed a second set in Mint State and About Uncirculated grades. Though beautiful, these coins meant less to me than the worn pieces which carried with them so many associations. I sold the high-grade set at auction, yet I still have my circulated collection, since upgraded from Whitman folders to Whitman albums.

Some years ago I wrote several titles in a series of “Complete Guide” books, and one of these focused on Lincoln cents. Though published in 1996, it has been reprinted several times, in each instance with a different cover design. Later, it was my privilege to be a contributor to Q. David Bowers’s first edition of the Guide Book of Lincoln Cents, which has succeeded my own as the current reference to the series. And this year, it was my even greater privilege to write the foreword for my long-time correspondent, good friend, and fellow Rittenhouse Society member, Dave Bowers, in the third edition of his Lincoln cent book.

No one captures the appeal of collecting coins like QDB, while simultaneously telling us everything we need to know about the subject at hand. To read A Guide Book of Lincoln Cents is to learn this series in depth and to fully appreciate the changing face of the Lincoln cent over more than a century. Included, too, are great anecdotes about the year in which each issue was coined. The only way to truly appreciate an old coin is to understand the role it played at the time, and by placing each entry in its historical context, Dave Bowers has brought it to life. Comparing his book’s great photos of Mint State coins with the same issues worn nearly slick, as so often found, gives a sense of how many generations used these coins in everyday life.

Chapters on history, the various mints, grading and buying Lincoln cents, and even ways of collecting the series make Dave’s book a treasure in its own right. So much of the information is applicable to any coin type that this reference is a must-have for any numismatic library.