Barber Halves 1892 Through 1915

Here is the information page from my 1940 Barber dime folder. It bears out what kbbpll said above about the Barber/Morgan "similarities."

So by 1940 they were transitioning to calling them Barbers. Cool info. I think the early Liberty Head nickel boards/folders also had a "rare" plug for 1913.

Sometimes I've wondered why people thought the Morgan dollar Liberty head and the Barber Liberty looked similar. For one thing, the Morgan head faces left and the Barber head faces right.

I think the reason is because prior to these designs, the dollar and half dollar coins both featured the identical seated liberty design by Christian Gobrecht. The idea of a large head now representing Lady Liberty was so new to this generation (who hadn't experienced the flowing hair and bust dollars of the late 18th/early 19th centuries) that they felt similar, even though they weren't similar in details. People just saw them as two big heads, and thus felt they were alike in that regard.

I still have the old Whitman folders I had used before I moved to Dansco albums. I am often tempted to start filling them up again just to see how far I would get.