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The Barber Dime series is known for its challenging run of coins that bridge the 19th and 20th centuries. Among the keys are the 1893/2 overdate, 1895-O, 1901-S, 1905 Micro O, and 1913-S. Along with those rarities are many semi-key issues. One of them is the 1896-S Barber Dime, which came along early during the series and proves difficult for collectors – especially in nice grades with problem-free surfaces. With its mintage of 575,056 and approximately 1,500 estimated extant, the 1896-S has seen fewer than 400 of its survivors make its way to encapsulation by PCGS.
Many collectors love a coin like the 1896-S Barber Dime. It has a mintage that is low enough to be considerably scarce, yet it’s not so scarce that it’s prohibitively expensive for the typical collector. The coin certainly has its fans among Barber Dime enthusiasts who want to build sets of the type; to be sure they need an example to complete a basic run of circulation-strike Barber Dimes. But there is also appeal for the issue from type set collectors who need an example of the Barber Dime to meet their objectives but want something of greater numismatic desirability than a run-of-the-mill common date. That being said, there are many different PCGS Set Registry categories that accommodate the 1896-S Barber Dime.
The 1896-S Barber Dime is like so many of the scarcer branch-mint emissions from around the turn of the century. It’s a coin that didn’t necessarily capture much attention by collectors when it was new, getting overlooked in favor of coins that numismatists knew early on were rare. Few examples ended up getting saved early on, leaving anemic supplies, especially in the better grades.
Prices for the 1896-S Barber Dime start at around $175 for an example in a grade of G4 and increase from there, with F12-graded specimens trading for $325. In XF40, the coin fetches $575 and retails for some $2,000 in MS63. Above that threshold, the 1896-S Barber Dime becomes decidedly rare, with PCGS-graded MS65 specimens numbering around a dozen, with cumulatively fewer than that in all grades above. The record price was hammered in 2003, when an MS66 specimen sold for $19,550.