Charles Barber's Dime

The obverse (heads) side of the Seated Liberty Dime features an image of Liberty sitting on a rock, wearing a dress and holding a staff with a liberty cap on top. Her right hand is balancing a shield with the inscription "LIBERTY." The reverse featured the inscription "ONE DIME," surrounded by a wreath. Chief Engraver William Kneass drew the original sketches, but suffered a stroke and was too ill to finish them or to oversee preparation of the dies. The task then fell to Christian Gobrecht, who was promoted to Second Engraver.

The Mint Mark on the Barber Dime (if any) is found on the Reverse (tails) of the coin below the wreath. The coins were produced in Philadelphia (no mint mark), Denver (D), San Francisco (S), and New Orleans (O).

The 1894-S Barber Dime is the only coin in the entire Barber series (dimes, quarters and halves) that can truly be called a "rarity." Only 24 were minted, and only 9 (some sources claim 10) of those coins are known to still exist today.
Why were only 24 coins produced? That is the mystery of the coin which has made it legendary.
The April, 1928 edition of The Numismatist (the monthly publication of the American Numismatic Association) stated that a bullion account needed to be closed out, and that the amount necessary to do that was $2.40 -- 24 dimes. The Mint employees had no intention of creating a rarity, since the coins were struck in June and they expected more orders before the end of the year. Two or three pieces were obtained by Mint employees "just to have a new dime," When they realized the coins were now rare, they sold them to collectors for $25 or more apiece. The remaining 1894-S dimes went into a bag with other dimes and into circulation."
While the Mint administrators probably preferred that the "unintentional rarity" theory come to light, another explanation is more probable. Upon examining the existing specimens, several facts become apparent. First, all seven remaining high grade coins seem to be proof strikes...coins made from specially prepared and polished dies and carefully struck. This would not have been the case for coins simply struck to "round out the books."
What Really Happened?
In an interview years later, Hallie Daggett (daughter of San Francisco Mint superintendent John Daggett) said that her father minted 24 1894-S fulfilling a special request from some visiting bankers. Daggett presented 3 coins each to 7 people. He gave the remaining 3 coins to Hallie, telling her to "put them away until she was as old as he was." Hallie immediately spent one of the dimes on ice cream, but kept the other two until she sold them years later.
Today, most experts accept the "made for banker friends" theory as the more likely one.

The Barber Dime was not popular with people or the numismatic community. When Theodore Roosevelt began the crusade to beautify US Coinage the Barber Half Dollar, Quarter, and Dime were all among those he sought to replace. The Mercury Dime was the coin chosen to replace the Barber Dime.