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- Product ID: 18797
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A familiar name to coin collectors, William Barber served as the Chief Engraver, to the US Mint, from 1869-1879. 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, of the Barber Dime, only contains the coin's monetary value since the dime's size is too small to feature an extravagant design.
Considered to have a pretty average mintage, the 1902 Barber Dime was minted by the Philadelphia Mint and is in very fine condition. Very fine condition still exhibits the sharp details of the designs but the edges are pretty worn. The Philadelphia Mint was the first mint to be established in the US so it 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.