The "Barber Papers" 0

[kbbpll]

Has anyone on here browsed through these records? I took advantage of my new ANA membership and found an article in Numismatist archives from Feb 1995 about the ANA library receiving a copy of the "Barber papers" from the Stack family in 1991. I'm curious as to what kind of stuff is in there. @RWB? It's supposed to be copies, 3 inches thick, with originals at the Smithsonian.

[DWLange]

It's 227 pages of notes on cutting hair. 

[physics-fan3.14]

If you are an ANA member, you have access to the ANA library now. You have borrowing rights. Ask them, and they'll send it to you. 

[RWB]

There is an article on USpatterns.com about the pattern pieces mentioned by Barber.

[RWB]

1 hour ago, DWLange said:

It's 227 pages of notes on cutting hair. 

Yes, and there's also a brief side note about tattooing.

[RonnieR131]

thanks kbbpll, I joined on your recommendation, going to ANA site now and look up the Barber papers. Since I am an old hippie, I am curious to what color those Barber papers are anyway, and if they're flavored and what not....

[RWB]

The Barber Papers will cost you two-bits.

Now....the Penkovskiy Papers will be more expensive.

[kbbpll]

Jokes appreciated, but seriously, has anybody looked through them? The 1995 David Ganz article covers medal designs, a little about patterns, and a lot about coinage for other countries, with several pages about Cuban coins. I'm curious what else might be in there. I guess I'll check with ANA as physics-fan3.14 suggests.

[RonnieR131]

RWB- I didn't have anything to do with Penkovsky, I'm an NGC man for life. Even if I wanted to, the thought of execution is enough to keep me away from PCGS, way too expensive. kbbpll, I thought you meant an E-book. Guess I'll check out and see what else they have. Thanks...

[kbbpll]

2 minutes ago, ronnie stein said:

I thought you meant an E-book

These are physical correspondence, etc accumulated by Charles Barber over the course of his career. The papers themselves do not seem to be digitized or online anywhere, so one would have to check them out of the library I guess. The originals are in the Smithsonian. I had never heard of them until last night, but for some it's probably old news.

[RWB]

ANA members can request photocopies of the papers - which are poor photocopies in themselves. But the Library is closed at present; and the restrooms require visitors to bring their own paper. I wonder if old Numismatists would work?

[RonnieR131]

Thanks RWB, I plan on sifting through their library soon. ---- TP- Old Numismatists? LOL. Sense of humor is about all we have left nowadays. Like the Revenant says; "Day 88 and counting".

[kbbpll]

Two things caught my attention, which is why I started this. One, from the 1995 article: "I do not make any complete models only partial models and rely upon the engraving on the steel for the completion of the design". Barber explained this in a letter to a guy named Conant during correspondence about the Cuban coinage and the appearance of the "Cuban sea". Roger is probably well aware of this already (I have not read FMTM), but it implies that the "final" design was engraved on a master die, then used to create a master hub. I always thought everything was on the "model" / galvano other than legends around the rim area and dates that were punched later (various eras, press technology, etc dictating). It seems like more of the final design was a product of engraving than I had thought.

Second, there was an auction of a copy of the Barber papers in 2010, and one of the images associated with that is pasted here. The implication is that Barber kept detailed records of die numbers and presumably production dates. If he was diligent about this throughout his career, it seems like it would be useful to researchers.

All this is related to my curiosity about the subtle design changes made to dimes, quarters, and halves during 1900-1901.