FIVE AND SIX POINT STARS ON BARBER COINAGE

A Debate Over Star Points

Barber silver coins (1892-1916) have six-pointed stars on the obverse, and five-pointed stars on the reverse. Why? Five-pointed stars grace the U.S. flag, and the Great Seal of the United States follows suit. A recent bit of U.S. Mint correspondence, scanned and transcribed by Newman Portal, sheds light on the situation in 1892, with the advent of Barber coinage.

Heretofore, the six-pointed star was featured on the obverse of the Liberty Seated coinage since 1838 (the 1837 Liberty Seated dime was the no stars variety), while Draped Bust coinage featured six-pointed stars on both obverse and reverse.

Mint Director Leech wrote to Philadelphia Mint Superintendent in October 1891 "I agree with the engraver that the six pointed star looks richer, and you are authorized to use it on the obverse" while "the five pointed stars will be used on the reverse," with no additional explanation. All the known pattern pieces exhibit this scheme. So, the obverse use of six-pointed stars seems to have been simply the preference of the engraver, which withstood bureaucratic inquiry, while the reverse stars remain a mystery.

Link to 1891 Leech correspondence:
https://archive.org/details/newdesignexperimentalhalvesstarpoints
18911024/page/n3/mode/2up

Link to U.S. Mint general correspondence entry on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/archivedetail/515202

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web