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With only 950,000 Barber Half Dollars minted in 1896, the 1896 Barber Half Dollar is considered a key date! The 1896 Barber Half Dollar is considered to be in about good condition, exhibiting severe wear on the whole coin surface, resulting in a whitish looking coin.There were four mints that aided in the production of the Barber series. The main US Mint and the first mint to ever be established, the Philadelphia Mint, doesn't mark its coins with a mint-mark. The US desperately needed an identity but also a means to international commerce so the Founding Fathers decided that a national mint was the answer. The Mint Act officially announced the opening of the Philadelphia Mint and also instituted guidelines for the newly minted currency. A dollar decimal system would be used to assign the currency with legal tender values. Also, an emblematic symbol of liberty must be included on US currency, hence why so many adaptations of Liberty have been used.
Serving as Chief Engraver, to the US Mint from 1869-1879, William Barber is a household name to most collectors. In just the short ten years as Chief Engraver, Barber was responsible for a history-breaking coin design. Being one of the only designs to grace all current denominations, the Barber design was inspired by the Grecian goddess, Liberty, who has been admired and loved by warriors since the beginning of time. Liberty wears an Acanthus leaf cap as a crown, which was very common in ancient Greece, and the "United States of America," and the coin's mint date are also simply stamped on the obverse. The reverse contains the nation's official seal, which is of a heraldic eagle holding a shield. Each of the eagle's talons are grasping a symbolic gesture: olive branches and arrows. The olive branches represent peace, wherein the arrows symbolize power and battle.