Numismatics Blog

Numismatists are very familiar with the name – Barber. William Barber (1807 to 1879) was the Chief Engraver at the US Mint from 1869 until his death in 1879. William was a prolific designer of pattern coinage. He loved to engrave designs that were much appreciated for their beauty and artistry. His predecessor as Chief Engraver was James Longacre, who designed coins that were rather bland in their design. Barber was seemingly influenced by the British Royal Mint's "Britannia" designs. There are great similarities between the Britannia coinage and Barber’s own Trade Dollar designs. He also modified the Seated Liberty design for the short-lived Twenty Cent piece.

Towards the end of Barber’s life, he and his chief assistant, George T. Morgan, engaged in a fierce competition, desperately trying to design the most beautiful and artistic American coins. At the time the conventional wisdom was that Morgan would succeed Barber as Chief Engraver, as his talents were far superior to any other Mint employee.

George T. Morgan (1845 to 1925) was born in England and began his career as die engraver at Wyon & Company. In 1876 he was hired as the Assistant Engraver at the US Mint and served under Barber. Like Barber, Morgan designed dozens of pattern coins, including some of the most famous and most valuable – the “Schoolgirl” dollar and the “Shield Earring” series of pattern coins. He also designed the never-released $100 Gold Union coin, the largest gold coin ever created by the United States. His most famous and lasting tribute is his design for the silver dollar used between 1878 and 1921. Through the Morgan Dollar, his legacy will live on in numismatics forever.

In a surprising turn of events, as William Barber neared death, Mint officials did not select the star pupil, George T. Morgan, to succeed the elder Barber. Instead they chose his son, Charles Barber (1840 to 1917), to succeed his father. The younger Barber designed a series of coins which also bear his name – the Barber dime, Barber quarter and Barber half dollar. He also designed the Liberty “V” Nickel. All of his designs shared the common thread of only having an allegorical “head” of Liberty dominating the obverse of the coin.

Charles Barber did continue his father’s battle with George Morgan over designs and styles of future coins. Morgan continued to serve as Assistant Engraver to the younger Barber as he did to the older Barber. But Barber did not end his arguments with Morgan; he also strongly criticized the gold coins designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. But Saint-Gaudens had a very powerful friend in President Theodore Roosevelt, who longed for a complete redesign of our bland coinage, starting with our gold coins. Roosevelt longed for the beautiful allegorical designs that Saint-Gaudens produced and that Barber despised. Roosevelt obviously won that important battle in numismatic history!

In a final ironic twist, George Morgan, who served as Assistant Engraver first under William Barber and then under his son, Charles Barber, was finally elevated to the position of Chief Engraver of the United States Mint in 1917. The Barber name, as well as that of Morgan, will live in American numismatic history forever!


Mike Garofalo
Mike has over 30 years of experience in virtually all areas of numismatics. He has specialized in the classic US Commemorative Coins, their original holders, and related memorabilia. His writings have been published in The Numismatist, The Commemorative Trail, The Nonagon and other publications. Feel free to contact Mike at Mike@APMEX.com

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word 'Obsolete' as meaning 'no longer in use or something of a kind or style that is no longer current.' While those definitions apply to Obsolete Bank Notes, they miss the point entirely. Obsolete bank notes are collected and especially valued because of their intricate designs, their allegorical representations of ancient gods, their issuing locations, or their subject matter.

Up until 1862, the United States had had not issued any paper money. The US Mint had been issuing all denominations of coins, but no currency, as paper money was not well-liked by the skeptical public. Since the early 1800's, banks, municipalities, merchants, and companies alike issued millions of bank notes. But many of these banks failed, or were intentionally fraudulent. Although a good percentage of these notes were redeemed and canceled, the non-collectible value of the majority of these bank notes was nearly worthless.

For many years, obsolete (or 'broken bank notes' as they are also called) notes had little or no value and, consequently, little collector value. In the 1950's, all that started to change. Currency collectors began to look for bank notes from their hometowns, from their states, or for bank notes displaying certain topics like ships, dogs, or coins.

Due to the lack of a standard reference, no one actually knew which notes were rare, which notes had been issued by which banks, and what the notes actually looked like. All of that changed in 1988 when James A. Haxby published his epic 4-volume reference titled, "United States Obsolete Bank Notes." This massive work took many years to compile and complete. Since its publishing in 1988, it has remained the standard reference work on the subject.

These beautiful notes are collected for a wide variety of reasons – by hometowns, by states, by unusual town names, by the vignettes depicted on the notes, by topics, such as Coins depicted on the notes – the possibilities are virtually limitless!

Some collectors only buy Uncut Sheets of unissued bank notes, some others only buy rare and valuable Proof notes, and others still only buy notes that are Unlisted in the Haxby reference!

Wherever your interest lies, there are Obsolete Bank Notes that will meet your needs at http://www.apmex.com/. What is YOUR pleasure? APMEX has hundreds of Obsolete Bank Notes to choose from to add to your collection today.


Mike Garofalo

Mike has nearly 30 years of experience in virtually all areas of numismatics. He has specialized in the classic US Commemorative Coins, their original holders, and related memorabilia. His writings have been published in The Numismatist, The Commemorative Trail, The Nonagon and other publications. Feel free to contact Mike at mike@apmex.com.

Although not considered as a bullion item today, copper, more specifically copper Lincoln memorial cents are quietly and steadily gaining recognition as the next big thing to hit the coin industry.

Lincoln Cents minted 1982 and prior contain 95% copper making each cent worth double its face value due to the rising value of its metal content. Presently, the U.S. government has deemed it illegal to melt copper cents. This is similar to what happened in 1967-1969 after our silver coinage was replaced with clad. The reason is the fear that people will hoard them and take them out of circulation leaving too small of a supply for their original purpose: to be spent! This was the case in India when the Rupee’s intrinsic value became worth more as bullion than in the pockets of the Indian public. Just as silver coins soon became legal to melt in the U.S., it is projected that copper will follow suit sometime in the near future.

You may be wondering what is driving up the price of copper? In addition to the world’s dwindling copper supply, copper is used for many things such as plumbing, telecommunications, transportation, wiring, cell phones, and so on. It’s all based on supply and demand, which at the moment is dramatically uneven. Chile, the world’s largest manufacturer and supplier is continually turning out less and less due to a combination of production costs, because of inflation, and the overall copper shortage. It has been over 100 years since the last significant copper mine was found anywhere in the world.

There have been many predictions as to how fast and how much copper will rise in the coming years. Most estimates range from three to four percent over the next several years. This is based both on supply and demand, and pure optimism. In addition, at a time when most precious metals have reached all time highs with gold and silver going over $1,000/oz and $20.00/oz respectively earlier this year, people want and need a more affordable way to invest in something other than the volatile waters of Wall Street.

The copper market has quickly become a growing bull market in recent years due to its rapid consumption rates and has outperformed all of its precious metal cousins by large margins. Some believe that this is only a bubble waiting to burst; others are taking the bull by the horns and investing in it while they can get it at an affordable price and while most of the investing market dismisses it. One affordable way to invest in the copper market is to purchase bags or rolls of these cent coins. Diversification is the key to safety in investing.

Ted
Ted has over 10 years experience in the numismatics field with a concentration in Half Cents-Nickels. If you would like more information or have questions about this post, you can email Ted at ted@apmex.com.