The Barber Half Dollar was introduced in 1892, along with two other similarly redesigned denominations. The obverse of the coin features the head of Liberty facing right in a Phrygian cap with a wreath of laurel. The reverse features a heraldic eagle, with talons clutching an olive branch and a bundle of arrows. The designer of the series was Charles E. Barber, for whom the coins are named. The series was preceded by the Liberty Seated design and following by the Walking Liberty design.
There were 24 different years when coins were produced, from 1892 to 1915 inclusive. Production took place at the Philadelphia Mint, Denver Mint, New Orleans Mint, and San Francisco Mint. There are a total of 73 different date and mint mark combinations.
Barber Half Dollar Notes:
The total number of all coins struck for circulation was 135,898,329.
One variety that is extremely difficult to locate is the 1892-O Micro O Barber Half Dollar, which instead of a regular sized mint mark, a mint mark sized for a quarter dollar was used on the reverse. The mintage for the 1892-O Micro O Barber Half Dollar is included in the mintage for the 1892-O Barber Half Dollar, with around 50 known examples across all grades.
The 1899 Barber Half Dollar had the highest mintage of the series with 5,538,000 produced.
The average mintage across all issues of the series is 1,861,621. This is computed based on the mintages for all date and mint mark combinations of the series.