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- Product ID: 23727
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The 1897-S Barber Quarter has an extremely low mintage of only 542,229 and is in about good condition. The 1897-S Barber Quarter exhibits heavy wear on both sides of the coin, resulting in a very worn, whitish coin. The Barber design received mixed reactions from the public, when it first opened. Barber used the Head of Liberty to grace the obverse of the Barber coin series. Liberty's look is inspired by a Grecian Goddess and she wears an Acanthus leaf cap as a crown. "United States of America," and the coin's mint date are also simply stamped on the obverse of the Barber Quarter. 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. This design is still used on modern day coinage and represents the strength of the nation, while understanding the price that needs to be paid for freedom.
First established in order to supply a place gold miners could sell their gold, the San Francisco Mint opened in 1854. This West Coast-based mint helped produce some of the most popular coin collections in history, including the Barber coinage. The San Francisco Mint is revered for its intense quality control and strong strikes. It ended up being a very lucrative business, turning out $4 million dollars of gold in its first year. It quickly outgrew its first building and moved to the Granite Lady building, where it withheld its structure during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The building wasn't actually made of granite, just the basement was but the name was used for marketing and stuck. In 1937, it moved to its final facility that is still the San Fran Mint today.