Hello Silver & Gold stackers! Another week and I have another Japanese American coin for you!

This time we're going to take a brief look at the Barber Half-dollar.

I'll give some basic coin stats, then we'll look at both sides, and then I'll give some more general info!

Sound fun? Let's go!

Stats

Some basic coin stats for you:

• Weight: 12.5 g
• Diameter: 30.6 mm
• Thickness: 2.15 mm
• Edge: reeded

and most importantly, it's 90% silver, so that means about 11.3 grams of silver. Woohoo silver!

Let's look at the coin a little more.

Front Side

We have Liberty donning a spiffy pileus cap and laurel with "In God We Trust" above and 13 stars on either side of her, a B for the engraver, Charles Barber, on her neck, and the date below.

Back Side

This side is much better. We get a heraldic eagle holding a scroll in its mouth which says "E Plurbus Unum" ("Out of many, one"); in its right claw an olive branch and in its left, 13 arrows. Above it are 13 stars.

About

According to Wikipedia, the reaction to this coin from the public was mostly positive, but from numismatists it was more mixed, with some hating it (and accusing Barber of stealing the design of Liberty from the Morgan dollar) and some admiring it. Evidently the "American Numismatic and Antiquarian Society" disliked all Barber's coins that they immediately started trying to push for them to be replaced.

I don't see why, personally. While the Barber Half-dollar is kind of boring, it's not bad by any means. But I guess the demands to have it replaced eventually gave us the Walking Liberty design that replaced this one and is currently used on the silver eagles, so it all worked out in the end.

Overall

I now have a Barber dime and half-dollar, so I suppose I should try to get ahold of the Barber quarter to complete the set. At any rate, it seems like a lot of barber coins are thought to have been lost to the big silver melt of the 1980s, so most years of this one seem to go for quite a bit. I got this one for not too much from an American who was trying to sell it at a coin shop when I was there. According to silveragecoins this one goes for quite a bit more than I paid for it, so maybe I got lucky. Then again, this one is worn pretty well. At any rate, more silver for the stack!

❦

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.