Barber Quarters Hidden Values(con't)

     With that admission, the Treasury simply ordered Barber to design new coins. Barber had started with a Standing Liberty design, which did not go perfectly as there were some suggestions and desired changes. Other suggestions were not received all that well by Barber, but eventually there were designs that everyone was willing to live with - although there was probably some feeling among officials that in this case, no good deed or good intention had gone unpunished either by the artists or by Barber.
     The Barber quarter entered circulation at a time when coin collecting was beginning a transition. The idea of collecting coins by dates was really just beginning to be replaced by collecting by both dates and mintmarks. That transition would basically take place during the period when Barber quarters were minted, 1892-1916. The process was sparked by the publication in 1893 of "Treatise on Mint Marks" by Augustus Heaton. Prior to that publication, many collectors were simply without serious information as to differences between coins of the same date produced at different facilities.
     Even with the Heaton publication, there were still problems. You could not send in a check every year and obtain a mint or proof set. With no Federal Reserve System or national distribution of coins, it was still difficult for a collector living in Baltimore to acquire a new coin of a specific denomination from San Francisco.
     In fact, the popularity of collecting by date and mintmark was really enhanced with the first cents and nickels to be produced outside of the main facility in Philadelphia more than a decade later. As the bulk of collectors were collecting lower denominations, until those denominations were produced outside of Philadelphia, many continued with their simple date-collecting approach.
     All of that is important when considering Barber quarters, as when they were first introduced, there was relatively little active collecting by date and mintmark, which can have serious implications for the number of nice examples of a given date available today. That is especially true in the case of earlier dates from facilities like San Francisco and New Orleans. It is also worth remembering that a quarter collection represented a substantial investment just in its face value for many, so while prices may in most cases be modest in many instances there is very good reason to believe that Barber quarters may well be far less available than their mintages and prices would currently suggest.
     The traditional focus of a Barber quarter collection in circulated grades would be the big three dates, which are actually three very different dates starting with the key - the 1901-S. The 1901-S Barber quarter is not the lowest mintage Barber quarter, but it is easily the most elusive. It certainly did not have a high mintage at 72,664 pieces, but the 1913-S was lower at 40,000. The 1901-S, however, seems to have simply vanished.
     The proof of the disappearing 1901-S is everywhere. One of the best indications came in the New York Subway Hoard purchased by the Littleton Coin Company some time ago. The hoard held key dates found in circulation by a worker in the New York Subway System. It gives a fascinating view of what dates were in circulation in what numbers from the 1940s and 1950s. In the hoard were a total of eight examples of the 1901-S, less than half the total of the lower mintage 1913-S and less than one-half of the total of 1916 Standing Liberty quarter.
     The only quarter found in fewer numbers was the 1918/17-S Standing Liberty quarter, which was not even known until 1937, and Standing Liberty quarters had dates that quickly disappeared, so there is some question if the person assembling the hoard even was initially aware of the 1918/17-S and even if they were, there is the added possibility it was simply too late to identify some due to wear.
     If you look at the prices of the 1901-S today, you see confirmation of the lack of supply. In G-4, the 1901-S is currently $4,000, up from $2,200 in 2002 and $1,750 in 1998. It's like that in every grade. In MS60 it has gone from $12,600 in 1998 to $19,000 in 2002. and to a listing today at $26,000, while its MS-65 listing also continues to rise to a current level of $54,000.

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