The Barber dime, also known as the Liberty Head dime, was struck from 1892 until 1916. Featuring the same obverse as the quarters and half dollars of the same name, all designed by Charles E. Barber, these coins depicted the head and neck of Liberty wearing a laurel wreath.

The redesign of the dime was a part of an overall push to update U.S. coinage. At first the U.S. Treasury invited 10 prominent artists to submit designs, but when they collectively balked at the low fee and lack of compensation for the losers, the government threw the competition open to anyone who wanted to enter. Judges included sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, whose 1907 Double Eagle is considered by many numismatists to be the most beautiful American coin ever made; a Boston engraver named Henry Mitchell; and the mint’s chief engraver, Charles E. Barber.

As it turned out, Barber had wanted to design the coin himself, so he saw to it than none of the 300 or so entries were deemed good enough. A century later, many critics are no l...ess kind about Barber’s dime. The obverse is little more than a flopped version of the 1878 Morgan silver dollar, while the reverse, like the Liberty Seated dimes that preceded Barber’s, featured former mint engraver James Longacre’s Cereal Wreath design, which had been in use since 1860.