Lot 1100
1892. PCGS graded MS-65. Lovely blue obverse toning and a frosty, bold gem. Initial year of the Barber design, noted Mint Engraver Charles E. Barber's most famous issue is that of the 1892-1916 Barber coinage.
Barber's obverse was a mirror image of the Morgan dollar head, with most of Ms. Anna Willess Williams's hair cropped off and the rest modestly concealed within her enlarged cap. A plain wreath replaced the assorted vegetable matter in the brim; IN GOD WE TRUST was moved above, now that the Latin motto would appear on the eagle's scroll.
The Barber reverse harked back to that of 1804, copying Robert Scot's adaptation of the Great Seal of the United States, though this time without Scot's blunder in positioning arrows and olive branch in the wrong talons. In the quaint but precise heraldic terminology, as explained in the Breen encyclopedia: "an eagle, barbed and langued [= with feathers and tongue depicted], displayed, in a glory of 13 stars; on his breast the arms of the United States, argent, six pales gules, a chief azure; in his beak a scroll inscribed E PLURIBUS UNUM; in his dexter claw an olive branch of 13 leaves, in his sinister claw a sheaf of 13 arrows." (PCGS # 5601) .
Estimated Value $900 - 950.
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| Realized $1,234 |
