Big Nub numismatics

In an effort to produce coins and medals on time for the Paris Expo. the annealing furnace broke and needed repairing. Could this have affected any of the dies, specifically the dime reverse? And if so, could this have caused some improper annealing of the last few that came out of the furnace and possibly the "nub" underneath the wreath?

Money is definitely the driving force behind identifying varieties, not curiosity and interest. That's probably why the Cherypicker's guide failed to put these in. As for die pairings; The Mint starts with an equal amount of both, and they try to stick with the pairings, but as the mint records indicate, the reverse dies wore much less quickly than the obverse. All of the obverse dies are destroyed at the end of 1899 at the branch mints, and the reverse dies are sent back to Philadelphia. Since the reverse dies wear less quickly, there are many more left (december mint records 1899 indicate about 10 more reverses than obverses).

Interesting. Not only were the dies not living to what they expected, but they weren't consistent either. If the reverse dies didn't wear as much, then why are there more varieties for the reverse? The dimes had plenty of dies working, and they destroyed quite a few of them. Are the numbered dies created in pair? E.g. obverse die 1 is supposed to be minted along with reverse die 1?

In 1901 the Philadelphia mint completely changed from steam powered to being powered by electricity. This meant cheaper and more efficient production of coins. From the records kbbpll has given me, the number of dies didn't change. If the mint planned on minting many more coins than previous years, dies would have had to be revised to ensure they lasted longer. Mintages show only a major increase in New Orleans from 1900-1901, and a significant decrease in San Francisco at this time.

Since both the reverses and obverses for the barber denominations had more or less small changes in nature around the turn of the century, was the decision made to change the design Barber's or the mint's?

There were two obverse varieties produced during the production of the Barber quarter. The varieties are based on the inner ear of liberty, one where cartilage is seen, and one where cartilage isn't seen. They appear with the three other reverses in that issue in many combinations. I'm not aware of an obverse variety on the dime, or the half dollar, but it may be similar to the quarter if it exists.

Do you have any rough numbers between the rarities of each type for 1899-1905?