The following article is reprinted from the Journal of the Barber Coin Collectors' Society, Volume 19, Number 3.

The following article contains the results of the Census and Rarity Survey of Barber Dimes. It is made available here because the Census and Rarity Survey was open to the general collecting public, not just the members of the BCCS.

During the first half of 2008, the BCCS conducted a Census and Rarity Survey of Barber Dimes. This was the third phase of the surveys we started with the Quarters and Halves the last two years. Because the previous BCCS survey on the Dimes was over a decade ago, the primary purpose was to update our knowledge of the series as to both the populations of coins already in collectors’ hands, and also the opinions of collectors as to the relative scarcity of the different dates in a wide range of grades. This is the third of four planned surveys. This article will look very similar to the previous reports, so forgive some repetition in laying the groundwork for the study and its results.

This project consisted of two parts:

• A Census for collectors to report their holdings for each date and grade level

• A Rarity Survey for collectors to express their opinions as to the relative scarcity of the different dates in the series in various grades.

There was an unbelievably strong response to the survey, with more than 170 collectors reporting over 17,500 coins! With the survey being open to the general public, a number of guests participated via the BCCS website in addition to the BCCS membership.

While the Census data provides very interesting and useful information, care should be taken when making use of this information. There are a number of important caveats that must be considered, and we repeat them once again.

Limited sampling: Many collectors possess Barber Dimes as type coins, and others have them as part of a year set (e.g., 1899). Lots more are in the hands of people that inherited them from grandparents, and the like. Although this survey was open to all collectors (not just BCCS members), only those guests who attended a BCCS meeting at a coin show, discovered our web site, or who read about the survey in Coin World or by word of mouth, participated in the survey (or have even heard of BCCS). Therefore, the majority of holders of Barber Dimes did not participate in the survey, and all of their coins are not represented here.

On or off the market: One assumption that is often made by readers is that a coin Census represents a cross section of the coins generally available in the marketplace. This, of course, is not true, as the reported coins are those that are already in collections and thus off the market. For the keys and semi-keys, which perhaps were acquired after a long search, they are often impounded in collections and off the market for a very long time.

One collector, one coin: Most collectors simply don’t buy coins in proportion to those on the market. Many people are putting together a set, in which case they will often buy only one specimen of each date and mint. However, if the collector believes certain dates are scarce and undervalued, he or she may purchase additional examples as an investment, or for later trades with other collectors. This can result in a collector possessing more examples of the scarcer dates than the common ones. Even if this doesn’t happen, the rare dates will appear to be equally available as common dates.

Upgrading: Many collectors strive for coins in a certain grade range. However, they may have to settle for a different (usually lower) grade of the scarcer dates until they find one in the desired grade, often after a long search. Once upgraded, many collectors will keep the duplicates of the keys and semi-keys for future trades. For the common readily-available dates, most collectors will simply wait to purchase pieces in the desired grade. Again, this would tend to skew the census in favor of the scarcer dates.

Hoarding: Some collectors have an interest in certain dates. Others may have affinity for coins produced at certain mints. However, most hoarding seems to occur with issues that are considered scarce and undervalued

Therefore, when trying to interpret the Census, one must bear the previous points in mind. It is for these reasons that we also conducted the Rarity Survey as a complement to the Census.

Over 17,500 coins were reported by 172 participants, including 112 members and 60 guests (via the website). 77 people (nearly half!) reported complete sets of the 74 regular issues (minus the extremely rare 1894-S), and 11 of those people had two or more complete sets. One member reported six complete sets!

* = Unconfirmed

Total Barber Dimes reported by grade:

The 1894-S Barber Dime

Many of us were wondering if any of the nine known 1894-S dimes would be reported in the census. Several 1894-S coins were reported by mistake (and later acknowledged and removed). One person entered an 1894-O in the S row by mistake. Another reported a complete VF set by simply filling in the VF space in every row, including the 1894-S in error.

A single 1894-S entry remains in the census. One coin, reported as MS and not Proof, has a * next to it. I attempted to confirm whether the entry was made on purpose or in error and got no response to date. Even though all 24 1894-S dimes originally minted are usually considered Proofs, it is undeniable that some of the not-the-nicest examples are not well struck, and a couple examples reportedly have little or no true proof attributes. Thus, I suppose it remains possible that the coin is the real deal. The person who submitted the census (who will be anonymous) could, however, be in a position to own one. Thus, I must leave the entry in the census until (and if) it is later recalled as an error. If this is the case, a correction will be made to the data on the BCCS website. I will leave it up to the reader to ponder.

Some additional details and observations

Excluding the 1894-S, as expected, the least reported coin was the 1895-O, the key date of the regular issues, with just over 100 coins. Surprisingly, not that far behind was the 1896-S, followed by a half dozen or so mostly early dates. Perhaps this is due to the fact that a large percentage of survey respondents had complete sets, and thus the 1895-O and other semi-keys appear more frequently in the survey than they otherwise might. One collector had 6 complete sets, and did not have appreciably fewer 1895-O coins than many of the other dates. Only a single 1895-O was reported in mint state, a distinction it shared with only the 1903-S in the regular issues, while 1898-O and 1901-S had just two MS coins each. 1897 and 1898 were the most common MS coins, with 18 reported of each.

The most reported coins in the survey were the common later dates. There was no clear “most common date” in the series based on this census, although the 1913 was the most reported coin. The coin considered the most common in the set, the 1916, finished as the 3rd most reported coin. All in all, there was a fairly smooth ramp-up of populations from the 102 for 1895-O to over 600 for 1913, with no clear dividing line between the semi-keys and rest.

As can be seen in the breakdown by grades, the largest number of coins was reported in G. However, there was a fairly even distribution in somewhat higher grades, with more F and VF coins reported than VG! In this way, the Dimes census differs dramatically from that of the Quarters and Halves, where the mid- to higher circulated grades were far scarcer. Perhaps with the dimes, they were both more available and affordable than the quarters and halves. The lower count of AG coins can be attributed to the large melting of the early 1980’s, plus a number of people remarked that they did not bother to report their lowest grade coins. Very few proofs were reported, perhaps indicating that many proofs are in the hands of type collectors or investors that did not participate in the survey.

By far, the 1905-O Micro O was the most frequently-reported variety, with 102 coins, representing over one-third of the 1905-O total of 303 coins, and the same as the total reported for 1895-O! There was, however, definite hoarding going on with that coin. The 1893-S/S/S was next with over 20 reported, followed by 1901-O over Horizontal O and the 1893/2. The scarcest of the varieties listed on the survey form was the 1909-O O over inverted D, with just 3 pieces reported. Many other varieties were reported as write-ins, and they are too numerous to mention here. They will be posted on this website *** THIS WILL BE DONE SOON. It was suggested at the BCCS meeting at the ANA that future repeat surveys of these series should focus on varieties, and most attending the meeting thought that was a good idea. Me too.

There was some clearly hoarding evident in the census, and it seemed to be spread across many of the dates, including the common ones. The champion hoarder reported over 3,300 (66 rolls!) Barber Dimes of all dates, mostly AG-VG grades, including 7 1895-O examples, and over 100 each of the late date common P and some D mints. The low-mintage 1913-S was also subject to much hoarding, with one person reporting 74 of them. Several others had more than 10-20 of 1913-S.

To supplement the Census and help collectors set expectations on how easy or difficult some coins might be to find in certain grades, we also conducted a Rarity Survey, where collectors could offer their opinion of the relative availability of better date coins. Here they could express how difficult it was for them to find certain coins (or those they have been looking for without success). Rarity Rating definitions accompany the results below. We did not poll for the more common issues, though several respondents made comments on a few of those as well.

To publish the rarity ratings for the entire series in one place, we have added the ratings for the more common dates (from earlier works) to the results of the current survey of better dates. We did not ask for opinions on the 1894-S, as we know the grades of all known specimens and thus, their associated rarity ratings. It is listed in the table along with the rest of the series.

R1: Common date and grade
R2: Better date and grade
R3: Tough date – available, but may require some looking
R4: Scarce – may or may not find at larger shows/auctions
R5: Very scarce – only a few offered for sale each year
R6: Almost never seen – only one or two may be offered for sale in a year’s time
R7: Rare – a single specimen might, on average, be offered for sale once every few years
R8: Unique, or nearly so

Once again, the Rarity Survey got excellent results. Most collectors only expressed opinions on specific grade ranges that they have actively been looking for, while others only offered opinions on the specific dates that they are interested in. Like the last two years, there were many people that stated that the Rarity Ratings listed in The Complete Guide to Barber Dimes, by David Lawrence, were mostly still accurate, and only provided opinions for the coins they believed had changed since the book was written.

All in all, there was a lot of consensus among Rarity Survey respondents, although there were a few coins that had a wide variance, mostly depending on whether the respondent had found one or not in their desired grades. The most notable of these was the 1913-S, along with 1896-O and –S issues. More on these appears below. Some dates had minor shifts in ratings from previous surveys, but nothing dramatic. Once again, I think we learned a lot about the relative availability of the coins in this difficult series. Dave’s book told us that many Barber Dimes are really tough to find in higher circulated grades (lots of R4 and some R5 listings), and this survey seemed to confirm this. And the census data seemed to back this assertion up in most instances.

There were some changes to some of the key dates since the last BCCS Rarity Survey and Dave’s Complete Guide book. A number of the dates and grades that had previously been listed with high rarity ratings have fallen slightly. Remembering the definitions, any coin with a rarity rating above R5 is extremely difficult to find (no more than one or so per year for sale anywhere), and only a select few dates and grades are really worthy of that lofty distinction. Even an R5 is a very tough customer!

Of the regular issues, none of the dates retained an R6 rating in circulated grades, with the 1895-O in XF and AU clearly dropping into solid R5 territory. The Micro O also fell to R5 in these grades, as clearly more specimens have been found in the last decade, although it is still very tough in high grades. In MS, the 1895-O and 1898-O were the only R6 coins, and the census seems to support this conclusion, with only 1 and 2 pieces reported, respectively. The enigma is the 1903-S, considered an R4 coin in MS with little disagreement, but there was only a single one reported in our census. Hmmm. The 1894-S is easy. Of the nine known examples, 1 is AG, 1 is G (both unique in grade at R8), and the rest are not circulated, at R7.

The few differences of opinion were most visible on the 1913-S. Lawrence considered this low-mintage date (just 510,000) to be generally available, overrated, and hoarded, including in mint state (R2 there), and numerous members agreed. The collector with 74 of them had it in all grades G to MS. Others thought it vastly underrated, and one member said he thought it was the key to the set in grades over VG, including 1895-O! However, given the census results, it would appear the coin as a date is certainly quite widely available, but very tough in XF and AU. The survey respondents did boost its rarity rating to R5 in AU, but it remained high R4 in XF. Some debate was also evident on the 1896-O and –S coins, but as many people thought they were overrated as underrated (vastly in both cases!), thus leaving their rarity ratings where they were.

For a number of other dates, including 1895, 1897-S, 1900-O, and 1908-O, there were some collectors that complained that they have never seen decent pieces in mid to higher circulated grades, while others said they found those same dates easier than expected to come by. Interesting. It would be great for all of you to come to a BCCS meeting at FUN or the ANA to share your thoughts, and even bring duplicates of those dates you found easy, to trade with others who have not had the same luck!

All in all, however, in this Rarity Survey, there were no major surprises and with so many responses, it was amazing to see just how much consensus there really was.

This Census and Rarity Survey was intended to provide collectors of Barber Dimes some additional and updated information that will help them understand the relative availability and scarcity of the different issues in all major grade ranges. Due to the impressive participation, along with the quality of the responses, I am once again glad to report that I think we did that.

As stated previously, please use the results in any manner that will be most useful for your purposes, and we hope that the results will prove to be valuable information for you.

We look forward to conducting our final Census and Rarity Survey for the Liberty Nickels next year. After that, we can discuss conducting future census studies of the many varieties of the various Barber coins that have been discovered in the past few years. As is evident with the Dimes, there are now lots of them in these previously ignored series.

For reference purposes which you can print on a single sheet of paper and easily take to shows with you, a PDF file of the Census and Rarity Survey will be posted on the website as well (THIS WILL BE DONE SOON), along with a listing of the dime varieties that were reported.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this project and much appreciation for your ongoing support.

Happy hunting!

  Barber Coin Collectors' Society      --      Founded 1989      --      Email:   bccs@BarberCoins.org