The S-Mint Indian Cents: Classic US Coins
There are few coin series that originated in the 19th century and are as widely collected by date and mintmark as the
Indian Cent.
James B. Longacre, Chief Engraver of the
United States Mint, and in production from 1859 through 1909, the Indian Cent saw the vast majority of its production at the
Philadelphia Mint, which was long the only Mint facility authorized to produce base-metal coinage of small denominations; the bronze one-cent and copper-nickel five-cent coins could not be produced at branch mints. This changed in 1906 when the restriction that prevented branch facilities from producing small-denomination base-metal coins was lifted.
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Q. David Bowers: Revisiting Charles E. Barber
Philadelphia Mint in 1880, following the death of his father, Chief Engraver
William Barber; he remained in the post until his death on February 18, 1917. The
Liberty Head silver denominations he designed and which are known as “
Barber coins“, were made from 1892 to 1916. Today they are very popular, and the
Barber Coin Collectors Club gathers together specialists in the various issues. Perhaps the single most famous of his coins is the
1894-S dime, of which only 24 are said to have been struck.
While Charles Barber is best known today for the “Barber” coins mentioned above, he also designed the
United States 1870-S $3 Gold Coin
A great numismatic rarity was interred in the northeast cornerstone of the second
San Francisco Mint on May 25, 1870, during a Masonic ceremony covered by the press. Struck especially for the event using modified dies, the
1870-S $3 gold coin joined a number of other extraordinary numismatic rarities in a copper casket in the new facility’s cornerstone, ostensibly out of collectors’ reach. The facility was completed in 1874 and would go on to serve the western region of the nation’s coinage needs until 1937.
In 1907, almost four decades after the cornerstone was laid, a
second 1870-S $3 gold coin was offered in an ad published in