1895-O Barber Dime

A new dime after a failed contest

By the late 1880s there were growing calls to retire the Seated Liberty design, used on most U.S. silver coins since the 1830s. On September 26, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed a law letting the Mint redesign a coin once its design had been in use 25 years, which is why a coin first struck in 1892 became eligible for replacement in 1916.

The new Mint Director, Edward O. Leech, took office on October 16, 1890, and announced a design competition on April 4, 1891. He invited ten artists, including Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French, but offered only a single $500 prize. Leading artists wanted fees for every entrant and a jury of peers, and Leech had no money for that. The jury, which included Saint-Gaudens and Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber, met in June 1891 and rejected every entry.

On June 11, 1891, Leech told Barber to design the dime, quarter and half dollar himself. After some friction over details, including Leech's view that an early Liberty's lips were 'rather voluptuous', the designs were approved by President Harrison in November 1891, and the first Barber coins were struck at Philadelphia on January 2, 1892.

Barber's Liberty

All three Barber coins show a head of Liberty facing right, in the Roman classical style, wearing a cap and a small headband inscribed LIBERTY. On the dime UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the date surround her head. Barber's initial B sits on the truncation of her neck.

By law an eagle could not appear on the dime, so its reverse kept a slightly modified version of the Seated Liberty dime's: a wreath of corn, wheat, maple and oak leaves around the words ONE DIME. The mintmark, the O on this coin, sits beneath the wreath.

The design never won over critics. Numismatist Walter Breen, writing about the Barber quarter, called the composition stolid and crowded and found no merit in it beyond its technically low relief. Cabinet members had asked the Mint to make LIBERTY bolder because they feared it would wear away in circulation, and they proved right. The series ended in 1916, when the Mercury dime replaced it.

The key to the series

The 1895-O has the lowest mintage of the series and heads the list of Barber dime key dates, followed by the 1896-S, 1897-O, 1901-S and 1903-S. Only the 1894-S, of which 24 were struck, is rarer, and that coin is a legend rather than a date most collectors expect to own.

Most 1895-O dimes went into circulation and stayed there. PCGS estimates about 1,000 survive in all grades but only about 80 in Mint State and about 25 in grade 65 or better. Even well-worn examples carry real premiums: as of 2014, coins grading About Good 3 sold for more than $200. Mint State coins cluster at MS63 and MS65, then the population drops off sharply. PCGS had graded seven at MS64.

The finest known have changed hands only a few times. PCGS's own narrative names the Simpson Collection MS66 and the Lily Nicole Collection MS66+ as the two best, and notes that Barber specialist David Akers could do no better than an MS65. The PCGS auction record, though, is $58,756 for an MS67 in January 2017, so the published census and the auction records do not fully agree.

The Verner coin

This entry is the 1895-O from the Gary Verner Collection of Barber coins, graded MS64 by PCGS and carrying a green CAC sticker, which marks it as solid for its grade. A catalog description praised its delightful eye appeal: blue-green, peach and pale silver-gray toning over strong luster. A trade-press report called it among the prettiest coins in the Verner collection.

It sold on November 8, 2018, at a U.S. coin auction in Dallas, for $20,400.

Other top examples give a sense of the market. The Simpson Collection MS66 with a CAC sticker sold for $41,400 in 2005, joining a registry set that had begun as the Law Collection in 1994, and sold again for $44,650 in December 2014 against a $50,000 to $55,000 estimate. Earlier that year, on June 23, 2014, a PCGS MS65 with a CAC sticker from the Gene Gardner Collection brought $28,200.

How to know one

Turn the coin over: the O mintmark for New Orleans sits below the wreath on the reverse. Philadelphia coins have no mintmark. The obverse should read UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around Liberty's head, together with the date 1895.

The dime is 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper, weighs 2.50 grams and measures 17.90 millimeters, with a reeded edge.

The numbers

Mintage

440,000

Survival estimate

About 1,000 in all grades; 80 in 60 or better; 25 in 65 or better (PCGS)

PCGS MS64 population

7

Weight

2.50 grams

Diameter

17.90 mm

Composition

90% silver, 10% copper

Edge

Reeded

Designer

Charles E. Barber

Timeline

1. Sep 26, 1890

   President Harrison signs a law allowing coin designs to be changed after 25 years.

2. Apr 4, 1891

   Mint Director Edward O. Leech announces a public design competition.

3. Jun 1891

   The jury, including Saint-Gaudens and Barber, rejects every entry.

4. Jun 11, 1891

   Leech orders Charles E. Barber to design the new dime, quarter and half dollar.

5. Nov 1891

   President Harrison approves Barber's designs.

6. Jan 2, 1892

   The first Barber coins are struck at Philadelphia.

7. 1894

   San Francisco strikes just 24 dimes, the series' great rarity.

8. 1895

   New Orleans strikes 440,000 dimes, the lowest regular-issue mintage of the series.

9. 1916

   The Mercury dime replaces the Barber dime.

10. 2005

    The Simpson Collection MS66 sells for $41,400.

11. Jun 23, 2014

    A PCGS MS65 CAC from the Gene Gardner Collection sells for $28,200.

12. Dec 2014

    The Simpson Collection MS66 CAC sells for $44,650.

13. Jan 4, 2017

    A PCGS MS67 sets the auction record for the date at $58,756.

14. Nov 8, 2018

    This coin, the Verner PCGS MS64 CAC, sells for $20,400.

The world in 1895

• Feb 9, 1895

  William G. Morgan invents Mintonette, later called volleyball, in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

• May 27, 1895

  In re Debs: the Supreme Court upholds federal power used to suppress the Pullman strike.

• Jul 4, 1895

  Katharine Lee Bates' lyrics for America the Beautiful are first published.

• Sep 3, 1895

  The first professional American football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

• Sep 18, 1895

  Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise speech.

• Nov 5, 1895

  George B. Selden receives the first U.S. patent for an automobile.

• 1895

  J. P. Morgan and the Rothschilds lend gold to save the U.S. Treasury's gold reserve.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1895-O Barber Dime is number 86 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (96 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Barber dime exists because a public design contest, judged in part by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, rejected every entry.
• By law the dime could not carry an eagle, so its reverse shows a wreath of corn, wheat, maple and oak leaves.
• Only the 24-coin 1894-S has a lower mintage among Barber dimes than the 1895-O.
• Only about 80 Mint State 1895-O dimes are thought to survive.
• The Mint Director once objected that Barber's Liberty had 'rather voluptuous' lips.
• Cabinet members predicted the word LIBERTY on Barber coins would wear away, and they were right.