The Barber Half Dollar was introduced in 1892 along with the similarly designed dime and quarter dollar coins. The half dollar featured the same basic design, consisting of Liberty on the obverse and an eagle on the reverse. The series was produced until 1915, when it was replaced by the popular Walking Liberty Half Dollar. The Barber Half Dollar is traditionally one of the less popular series to collect, but has been attracting more attention recently and original pieces have become increasingly difficult to find in any grade.
The Barber Half Dollar shares the same story as the two other smaller denominations, the Barber Dime and Quarter. Designed by Charles E. Barber, it was the result of two contests, that both failed with no direct result. The first contest included ten well-known American sculptors, which unbelievably did not include Augustus St. Gaudens, one of the most popular sculptors of the time. The second contest was public, with well over 300 different designs submitted. Unbelievably here as well, none of the submitted designs was approved by the US Mint.
Finally, the task was given to Charles E. Barber, then-current Chief Engraver of the United States Mint. In his Encyclopedia, Walter Breen gives a short but clear point of view why he was chosen to design the new coins:
“One of the judges [of the public contest] was Mint Engraver Charles E. Barber (as notorious for opposition to outsiders’ coin designs as for dullness), none of the 300 entries won a prize...The new Mint Director, Edward O. Leech, denounced the competition idea as a wretched failure, and turned over the redesigning task to Barber, who had wanted it all along.”
Barber's obverse design features a bust of Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap with the word LIBERTY appearing on the band. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST appears above, with 13 star surrounding. The date appears below. The designer's initial "B" is placed on the truncation of Liberty's neck.
The reverse design features an eagle with outstretched wings. One claw clasps an olive branch and the other clasps arrows. Thirteen stars appear above the eagle. A scroll appearance behind the eagle which contains the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM. Surrounding the entire design are the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and HALF DOLLAR.
The Barber Half Dollar experienced a few minor modifications throughout the years to improve the design, but they were very minor and were not noted by collectors and dealers until years after minting of this series had been discontinued. As such, not much research has been done on possible transitional varieties, and in general varieties for this series are widely unknown and virtually uncollected.
Although far from being among the most popular series for collectors, Barber Half Dollars have gained some popularity in recent times. Collectors have now discovered that most pieces have been dipped, cleaned, or otherwise mistreated in any grade. As such, this is one of the few series where original EF pieces are often much harder to find than Mint State pieces of only medium quality. The circulated pieces in highest demand are those toned to a natural dark-grey color, which has proven to be very hard to find for all dates in the series.