Anyone Been To The BARBER Lately?!!!!!

TxSchelter

Jr. Member
Jan 15, 2014
47
74
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
1896 S BARBER QUARTER!!! SUPER RARE KEY DATE AND MY FIRST BARBER!!!!

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1896 S Barber Quarter! A rare key date for my first barber what are the odds! Should I just hang up the detector now?? Could it get any better?!!!

Barbers might me somewhat commonplace for some of the MD'ers on this site but not for me so I am in heaven!
I not only found my first barber but 2 of them in 10 minutes.

Barbers are just hard to find in my north texas town because we simply don't have the history of the colonial towns, etc.
I have found probably 30 silver coins in my 3 years of detecting and these are my first barbers.

The house I found these at was built in 1930 according to the tax roll(as old as it gets in my town) and I have been itching to detect it since I got started in this hobby.
I have watched and watched it and even knocked on the door once with no success. Finally after losing all hope and just driving the neighborhoods looking for rent/sale signs I was driving by this house and it had a sign out front!! After talking with the homeowner he assured me I would not find anything because he grew up in the house and detected it numerous time but I convinced him to humor me and let me look!

This house had a big front yard and after gridding it I had only come up with an Alabama sales tax token and 2 or 3 Wheaties so I was not too hopeful for good silver. I went around to the back and was immediately discouraged to see that half of the ground was covered in downed trees, trash, etc.

So with a heavy heart I started gridding the best I could with what I had to work with. My high spirits were now crushed from this once iconic house turning out to be a flop. After a few trash items, I am digging even the questionable signals, a beautiful sounding 12-45 pops across my etrac's screen. I pop the plug drop the dime size coin in my hand see a flash of silver and prepare to expose yet another merc (even though I love anything silver). I give it a rub and oh my god I see 1904 on that bad boy! I look up to the sky and slam my fists on the ground in celebration and follow it all up with a few very quiet screams!!

So now the day cant get any better I can finally cross a barber coin off my list. I dig some more trash and ten feet away from my barber dime I get a 12-46 that doesn't sound special and out pops a quarter size coin and my heart drops as I rub it and it looked perfectly smooth. I thought I had an aluminum knockout but as I flipped it over just to confirm I rub the other side and see the stars and 1896! It was heavily worn and had a good size scratch on the front that didn't look fresh so I don't think it was me but I don't care the coin is perfect in my eyes!!!

One of my best days ive had. Just re-iterates that you have to stay positive and don't rush yourself when you think your on a bad site!

Happy Holidays....



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Upvote 18

PA Sleuth

Sr. Member
Nov 26, 2014
260
708
Southeastern PA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 250, Minelab E Trac, XP Deus
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Awesome find. Glad to see fellow Texans here. I have a question for you coin buffs. If I find a coin like this should I try to clean it or will that do more damage than good?

You should not clean coins, especially those that might be worth some money. That being said, most of the stuff we dig would not be identifiable unless cleaned. Different coins should be cleaned in different manners. I would not clean this Barber.
 

testing123

Bronze Member
Mar 29, 2009
2,359
1,986
United States
Detector(s) used
CTX 3030, TDI SL
definitely don't do anything to it!!

It's not every day a key date coin pops up. a huge congrats! If you want a real value of your coin, check out ebay completed listings. It's easy to throw out random values using "book" value of VG, F, even Xf or higher, AND ASSUMING IT'S PROBLEM-FREE. What one needs to do is assess its grade without bias and see what similar coins have sold for. The obverse looks to be about a G4, maybe G6. The reverse looks a bit more worn, maybe FA2 or AG3. Hard to tell from the pics. With that being said, looks like it should be worth in the $250 to $350 range. Not a bad pay day!! Congrats again on a scarce coin!
 

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TxSchelter

Jr. Member
Jan 15, 2014
47
74
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks for the comments fellas. Definitely not cleaning this coin! A little cold water is all shes received. Not that I would ever sell it, but I cant wait to send it off and have it graded and put a value on this coin.
 

Gridwalker306

Gold Member
Nov 10, 2010
6,012
7,406
Canada
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
XP Deus, ATPro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Whoa, great quarter! It's not every day you find the 1896s Barber quarter, so it's remarkable in any condition. Congratulations!
 

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