My Barber Half Dollar Album

Very true mycrob. Both the dimes and the halves are achievable in low grades. The big three quarters
make that set a dream. The Barber nickels have their own Big Three which took me forever to find in VF.
A case could be made for the Indian cents if one is willing to settle for a few 'off' pieces among the keys.
Seated coinage is best collected by type unless you have $$$ to spare.

Now - TRY to find NICE Barber coins without problems! That is where the challenge lies. These coins represented
real money and could not be left sitting idle. Two nickels, a dime, a quarter and a half could take a Defense Worker to and back from work with lunch and a beer with dinner thrown in.

jack, it must have been fun looking at your halves after two years. My set is also complete but some look as 'loved'
as yours. Still, it represents a neat little pile of silver AND an historical range from the Chicago World's Fair to the outbreak of WWI.

Any thought about upgrading over time?

And YES! All three Barber silver series wore quicker on the reverse. Makes finding nice examples that much tougher.

An AU set of Barber halves?
Quick, I need smelling salts!
Once again I throw down the glove:
assemble a set of Barber coins, not matter the denomination, in "no question" good -
Sounds easy? It isn't.
Weak reverses, off-color, bent, gouged ...
That lovely fine but OH the scratch!?
There are just not enough coins to satisfy a Barber collector who strives for ... a balance.
Be it grade or color or eye-appeal or whatever ...
Sure, put enough money down and a dealer will put together a set of "average circulated" coins.

I suggest putting together a set which makes that same dealer drool -
I've done it with the dimes. Took a quarter of a century. And I am proud of it.
(Oh, I still need to upgrade a few)
Uh, all better than fine.

By comparison, and by counterpoint, assemble an AU set of Mercury dimes.
It would look outstanding, but how L O N G would it take to finish?
And in a condition that is satisfying to YOU, the collector?

Coin collecting is not a sprint - it is a marathon.

I have been working on it for 2 years.

After a year I was down to maybe 10 coins. Every 4 months after staying coin free and paying down all of my bills I would relapse and pick up a few coins for the set.

The last hole was the 1892 O and it had been staring back at me for 7 months and while money was tight I said what the heck and splurged and against better judgement and common sense back in October of last year I picked one up off of ebay for a fair price. I was content that the set was complete and threw it in the safe.

As is the case with my other hobbies the trill is in the hunt and once you finally find your grail or complete the set the thrill is gone. There are a few exceptions to the rule as I still roll hunt half dollars after completing my set 6 months after starting it and I will keep searching nickels now that my album is complete and I will have to build on my 2nd set.

How long did it take you to put this set together? I'm close to jumping into the halves, come to a end of the quarters.

great '92 S find!

Awesome, congrats.

And a great set of half $'s.