1909-O Barber Half Dollar

The story of the 1909-O

Production at New Orleans fell off a cliff in 1909. Only 925,400 were made, against 5.4 million the year before. That drop is why the 1909-O is the one people look for. It turned out to be New Orleans's last Barber Half Dollar for circulation.

1909-S came to 1.8 million and 1909 came to 2.4 million, so neither mint's 1909 coin is much scarcer than the other. In the whole series, its mintage sits closest to the 1896-O (924,000) and the 1897-S (933,900).

Across New Orleans's 18 Barber Half Dollar issues, the hardest to find is the 1892-O with 390,000 made. The 1909-O is on the scarcer side of the middle. Within the 1900s it's 5th smallest of 33, between the 1901-S (847,044) and the 1904-O (1.1 million).

Four mints and the end at New Orleans (1906 to 1909)

Denver struck its first half dollars in 1906, 4,028,000 of them. For four years all four mints made halves, the only time that happened in the Barber series. New Orleans struck 5,360,000 in 1908 and then 925,400 in 1909, its final half dollars before the mint stopped coining. San Francisco and Philadelphia each struck between about 1.25 and 2.64 million a year.

With so many mints working, the coins of these years are among the easiest Barber halves to find. They make a good starting point for a mint mark set because every coin of 1906 to 1908 is available in moderate grades. The 1909-O is the scarcest of the period. Mint marks sit just below the eagle's tail and are small, so a loupe helps when reading them on worn coins.

Elsewhere in US coinage in 1909

The Lincoln cent replaced the Indian Head cent to mark the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Designer Victor David Brenner's initials V.D.B. on the reverse were removed within days after complaints. The New Orleans Mint struck its last coins that year.