1914 Barber Dime

A strong year in terms of production, 1914 saw the minting of more than 30 million Barber dimes and would be the last year that the series would see such high production figures. The Philadelphia mint, as usual, picked up the largest share of production duties that year, with the Denver mint churning out a bit more than a third of the overall output. The San Francisco mint produced less than one-tenth of the gross volume of dimes that year.

Here’s a breakdown of mintage figures and values for the 1913 Barber dime:

• 1914 – 17,360,230; $5

• 1914-D – 11,908,000; $5

• 1914-S – 2,100,000; $7

• 1914 proof – 425; $650

*Values are for coins in a grade of Good-4, unless otherwise noted.

There’s little challenge to collecting any of the business-strike Barber dimes from 1914. Unless, of course, high-end mint-state coins are your cup of numismatic tea. Otherwise, one can obtain a Good specimen of each of the three business-strike issues for around $20 or combined. That’s probably welcome news to cash-strapped coin collectors who need to scrape together pennies – er, dimes – to buy the semi-key and key issues from elsewhere in the series.

The 1914 Barber dime saw a markedly small mintage, though this issue is not necessary for completing a business-strike run of Barber dimes.