1913-S Barber Quarter

A coin born from a failed contest

Edward O. Leech became Director of the Mint in October 1890 and wanted new designs for the silver coins. In April 1891 he announced a public competition with a $500 prize. Leading artists, including Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Daniel Chester French, declined to take part on the terms offered, and a jury of Saint-Gaudens, Chief Engraver Charles Barber and Henry Mitchell rejected all of the roughly 300 entries. Leech called the contest too wretched a failure.

The job went to Barber himself. Patterns were struck in November 1891, and regular production of the new dime, quarter and half dollar began on January 2, 1892. The quarter shows a classical head of Liberty facing right, wearing a cap with a wreath and a headband inscribed LIBERTY, with 13 stars and IN GOD WE TRUST. The reverse carries a heraldic eagle based on the Great Seal, holding a scroll reading E PLURIBUS UNUM, an olive branch and 13 arrows. Coins struck at branch mints carry a mintmark below the eagle.

The design ran from 1892 through 1916, when the Standing Liberty quarter by Hermon MacNeil replaced it.

Charles Barber

Charles E. Barber was born in London in 1840 into a family of engravers: his grandfather John and his father William both worked in the trade. William became Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint in 1869 and hired Charles as an assistant. After William died in 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes nominated Charles to succeed him, and he was confirmed in February 1880.

His silver designs drew sharp criticism. The painter Kenyon Cox called it disgraceful that the country should have such a coin, and one magazine wrote that the mountain had labored and brought forth a mouse. Later critics were kinder; art historian Cornelius Vermeule saw the designs as a reflection of the taste of their time, comparable to the monumental sculpture of Daniel Chester French.

1913: a year of new machinery

The year the San Francisco Mint struck these quarters, the United States was remaking how it ran. The Sixteenth Amendment authorizing the federal income tax was ratified in February, the Seventeenth Amendment providing for direct election of senators followed in April, and Woodrow Wilson took office in March. In December Congress created the Federal Reserve.

Ford adopted assembly line production that fall, the Woolworth Building opened in April as the tallest building in the world, and Grand Central Terminal reopened in New York. Against that backdrop, San Francisco made only 40,000 quarters.

The MS68 and its price record

The low mintage made the 1913-S a key date from the start, and collectors of the time set aside unusually nice examples. PCGS estimates that about 2,500 survive in all grades and about 150 in Mint State, around 70 of them MS65 or better; an earlier PCGS estimate put Mint State survivors at 50 to 75. MS64 and MS65 are the most common uncirculated grades. MS66 is rare, MS67 extraordinarily rare.

One coin stands above them all. Graded PCGS MS68, it is the finest known 1913-S and one of very few coins in the entire Barber quarter series to reach that grade. It sold at auction in January 2005 for $172,500, still the price record for the date. In April 2009 the same coin, then from the Joseph C. Thomas collection, sold at auction for $86,250, half its earlier price.

The next-finest examples trail far behind in price. A PCGS MS67 coin, probably bought directly from the San Francisco Mint by an early collector named S. Benton Emery, sold for $60,375 in 2009 and $70,500 in 2014. A PCGS MS66 brought $35,250 in 2015.

How to know a 1913-S

Look for the small S below the eagle on the reverse and the date 1913 below Liberty. Many 1913-S quarters show a die crack joining the lower right loop of the 3 to the bust; on the latest die states the crack runs from the bottom of the 3 down to the rim. That crack may explain why the dies were retired early and so few coins were made.

The coin weighs 6.30 grams, measures 24.3 millimeters and is 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper with a reeded edge.

The numbers

Mintage

40,000 (business strikes)

Known survivors

About 2,500 all grades; about 150 Mint State; about 70 MS65 or better (PCGS)

Weight

6.30 grams

Diameter

24.3 mm

Composition

90% silver, 10% copper

Edge

Reeded

Designer

Charles E. Barber

This coin's grade

PCGS MS68, finest known

Timeline

1. Feb 1880

   Charles E. Barber is confirmed as Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint.

2. Apr 1891

   Mint Director Edward O. Leech opens a design competition; all entries are rejected.

3. Nov 1891

   Patterns of Barber's new silver designs are struck.

4. Jan 2, 1892

   Regular production of Barber dimes, quarters and half dollars begins.

5. 1913

   The San Francisco Mint strikes 40,000 quarters, the lowest business-strike mintage of the series.

6. 1916

   The Standing Liberty quarter replaces the Barber design.

7. Jan 2005

   The finest known 1913-S, PCGS MS68, sells at auction for $172,500, the record for the date.

8. Apr 2009

   The same MS68 coin sells at auction for $86,250.

9. Jun 2014

   A PCGS MS67 example sells for $70,500.

The world in 1913

• Feb 2, 1913

  Grand Central Terminal reopens in New York.

• Feb 3, 1913

  The Sixteenth Amendment, authorizing a federal income tax, is ratified.

• Mar 4, 1913

  Woodrow Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th president.

• Mar 25, 1913

  The Great Dayton Flood kills more than 360 people in Ohio.

• Apr 24, 1913

  The Woolworth Building opens as the tallest building in the world.

• Oct 1913

  Ford adopts assembly line production.

• Dec 23, 1913

  The Federal Reserve is created.

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, 1913-S Barber Quarter is number 60 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 (90 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• No Barber quarter struck for circulation has a lower mintage than the 1913-S.
• A crack in the die may be the reason so few 1913-S quarters were made.
• The Barber design exists because a public design contest in 1891 failed; all 300 or so entries were rejected.
• The finest known 1913-S sold for $172,500 in 2005 and for $86,250 four years later.
• One of the best 1913-S quarters was probably bought directly from the San Francisco Mint by an early collector.