1901-S Barber Quarter

A new quarter nobody loved

For most of the late 19th century, American silver coins carried Christian Gobrecht's seated Liberty, a design introduced in the late 1830s and increasingly disliked as tastes changed. Reformers including magazine editor Richard Watson Gilder and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens pushed for something better, and on September 26, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed a law allowing the Mint to redesign any coin once its design had been in use long enough.

Mint Director Edward O. Leech opened a design competition in April 1891, but offered only a $500 prize to the winner and nothing to anyone else. The invited artists refused those terms, and a jury that included Saint-Gaudens and Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber rejected every public entry in June 1891. Leech then told Barber, on June 11, 1891, to design the new dime, quarter and half dollar himself.

Harrison and his Cabinet chose the final half dollar design on November 6, 1891, and Barber scaled it down for the quarter. The first Barber coins were struck at the Philadelphia Mint on January 2, 1892, and all three denominations had been coined by the end of that day. Barber quarters were made from 1892 to 1916.

Charles Barber and his critics

Charles E. Barber had been confirmed as the Mint's chief engraver in February 1880, succeeding his father, William Barber, and he held the job under nine presidents until his death in 1917. His Liberty head for the silver coins wears a cap and a band inscribed LIBERTY, ringed by 13 six-pointed stars; the reverse of the quarter shows the heraldic eagle from the Great Seal with a ribbon reading E PLURIBUS UNUM. Barber's initial B sits on the truncation of Liberty's neck.

Reviews were harsh. Saint-Gaudens told a reporter the design looked like the work of a 16-year-old with a few lessons in modeling, and one critic wrote that the mountain had labored and brought forth a mouse. The head was modeled on French silver coins of the period showing Ceres, and it also resembles George T. Morgan's Liberty on the silver dollar.

Soon after release, merchants complained the quarters would not stack properly, and Barber adjusted the design in 1892. In 1900 he modified the dies again, producing thinner quarters, and San Francisco Mint officials asked to keep using the old dies; Washington refused, wanting every mint to strike to the same specifications.

Why 1901-S is the key

In 1901 the San Francisco Mint struck only 72,664 quarters. By comparison, Philadelphia made 8,892,000 that year, New Orleans 1,612,000, and San Francisco itself 1,524,612 the following year. PCGS co-founder David Hall has called the 1901-S the rarest regular-issue silver coin of the 20th century, setting aside varieties.

Low mintage alone does not explain it: the 1913-S quarter had a smaller mintage, just 40,000. The difference is timing. In 1901 most collectors wanted one coin of each date and ignored mintmarks, and collecting by date and mint did not catch on until roughly a decade later. So almost no 1901-S quarters were set aside new; nearly all of them went into circulation and stayed there.

That is why most survivors are very worn, typically About Good 3 or Good 4. PCGS estimates about 2,000 exist in all grades, about 80 in Mint State and about 25 at MS65 or better. One leading auction firm, writing from its own experience, puts the Mint State total no higher than 40 or 50, so the estimates differ.

Worn but wanted: the Good-06 coin

This entry is a low-grade example: Good-06, a coin with heavy, even wear, plus a CAC sticker. Because the 1901-S is the date every set needs, even coins like this are expensive. On November 20, 2024, a CAC-approved Good-06 sold at auction for $7,200.

Other CAC-approved examples show how sharply price climbs with each step in grade: a Fair-02 brought $3,053.61 in June 2023, an AG-03 $3,480 in December 2024, a Good-04 $4,979.70 in September 2024, and an AU-55 $43,200 in August 2021. An NGC-graded AG-3 sold at auction for $3,120 on a September 15; its cataloger noted the obverse alone would grade Good, but the reverse rim had worn into the lettering.

That uneven wear is typical of the date. Many 1901-S quarters show a fully Good obverse with a reverse worn much flatter, especially along the right side, where the rim consumes the eagle's wing. Those coins are graded down to About Good 3.

The great examples

At the top end the 1901-S is one of the most valuable 20th-century silver coins. The finest known, graded PCGS MS68+, sold at auction in early 2010 for $327,750. A PCGS note suggests a coin that well preserved may have been bought directly from the Mint by a collector of the time, as the Pennsylvania oilman John M. Clapp was known to do.

An MS67 example sold at auction in March 1975, was sold privately in April 2001, went into the Eugene H. Gardner Collection, and brought $258,500 at auction in June 2014. Another coin, estimated at MS67, sold for $550,000 in May 1990. In March 2020 an example from the D. Brent Pogue Collection realized $180,000.

One survivor has an unusual story. In 1994 a high-grade 1901-S was found in the cornerstone of a schoolhouse in Reno, Nevada; PCGS later graded it MS65.

How to know one

A Barber quarter weighs 6.25 grams, measures 24.3 millimeters and is 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper, with a reeded edge. Because the 1901-S is so valuable, collectors buy it certified; a coin with a sharp date but a worn reverse is typical, not a warning sign.

The 1901-S sits with the 1896-S and the 1913-S as the three keys of the Barber quarter series, all struck in San Francisco, and of the three it is much the scarcest. The Barber Coin Collectors Society, founded in 1989, is devoted to coins designed by Charles and William Barber.

The numbers

Mintage

72,664

Known survivors

About 2,000 in all grades, about 80 Mint State, about 25 MS65+ (PCGS estimate); another estimate puts Mint State at no more than 40-50

Weight

6.25 grams

Diameter

24.3 mm

Composition

90% silver, 10% copper

Edge

Reeded

Designer

Charles E. Barber

Rarity

R-4.6 in all grades; rarest of 74 regular-strike Barber quarters (PCGS)

Timeline

1. Sep 26, 1890

   President Harrison signs the law allowing the Mint to redesign U.S. coins.

2. Jun 1891

   A jury including Saint-Gaudens and Barber rejects every entry in the public design competition.

3. Jun 11, 1891

   Mint Director Leech instructs Barber to design the new dime, quarter and half dollar.

4. Nov 6, 1891

   President Harrison and his Cabinet choose the final design.

5. Jan 2, 1892

   The first Barber coins are struck at the Philadelphia Mint.

6. 1900

   Barber modifies the quarter dies; San Francisco is refused permission to keep using the old dies.

7. 1901

   The San Francisco Mint strikes 72,664 quarters, the 1901-S.

8. 1916

   The last Barber quarters are struck; the Standing Liberty quarter replaces them.

9. 1917

   Charles E. Barber dies in office.

10. Mar 1975

    An MS67 example, later in the Gardner Collection, is sold at auction.

11. 1989

    The Barber Coin Collectors Society is founded.

12. May 1990

    An example estimated at MS67 sells at auction for $550,000.

13. 1994

    A high-grade 1901-S, later graded MS65, is found in a Reno schoolhouse cornerstone.

14. 2010

    The finest known, PCGS MS68+, sells at auction for $327,750.

15. Jun 2014

    The Gardner MS67 sells at auction for $258,500.

16. Mar 2020

    The Pogue example realizes $180,000 at auction.

17. Nov 20, 2024

    A CAC-approved Good-06 sells at auction for $7,200.

The world in 1901

• Jan 10, 1901

  Oil gushes at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas, the first great Texas gusher.

• Feb 25, 1901

  J. P. Morgan incorporates U.S. Steel, the first billion-dollar corporation.

• Mar 4, 1901

  William McKinley begins his second term, with Theodore Roosevelt as vice president.

• Sep 2, 1901

  Roosevelt says "Speak softly and carry a big stick" at the Minnesota State Fair.

• Sep 6, 1901

  McKinley is shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo; he dies eight days later.

• Sep 14, 1901

  Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th president.

• Oct 16, 1901

  Roosevelt invites Booker T. Washington to the White House.

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, 1901-S Barber Quarter is number 94 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 (97 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The 1913-S quarter had a smaller mintage than the 1901-S, yet the 1901-S is far rarer because collectors in 1901 ignored mintmarks and saved almost none.
• Philadelphia struck 8,892,000 quarters in 1901, more than 120 times San Francisco's 72,664.
• A high-grade 1901-S quarter turned up in 1994 inside a schoolhouse cornerstone in Reno, Nevada.
• Saint-Gaudens, who helped reject every entry in the 1891 design contest, publicly ridiculed Barber's finished design.
• Early Barber quarters would not stack properly, so Barber had to adjust the design within months of release.
• Most surviving 1901-S quarters are so worn that their reverse rims have eaten into the eagle's wing.