1891 Proof Half Dollar Pattern - J-1766

Coin Details

Description

Judd-1766 is a unique proof pattern half dollar featuring the most dramatically different design among the five 1891 Barber half dollar patterns. Known as the "Standing Columbia" design, the obverse departs entirely from the head-only Liberty portrait used on the other four patterns. Instead, it depicts a full standing figure of Liberty as Columbia, holding a sword in her right hand and a pole surmounted by a Phrygian cap in her left. This ambitious, elaborate composition represents Barber's attempt at a more dynamic and monumental design for the denomination. Mint Director Leech rejected the Standing Columbia obverse, though he admired certain elements, finding it overly complex for a circulating coin. The reverse design complemented the standing figure with appropriate heraldic elements. After Leech rejected this full-figure approach, Barber revised his designs to focus exclusively on the bust of Liberty that would characterize the adopted coinage. The Standing Columbia concept would find echoes a quarter-century later when Hermon Atkins MacNeil's Standing Liberty quarter debuted in 1916, proving that Barber's instinct toward a standing figure was not without merit. J-1766 resides in the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection alongside the other six unique 1891 Barber patterns, together forming the most significant group of late-nineteenth-century American coin design studies in existence.

Rarity Notes

R-8. Unique. Single specimen in the Smithsonian National Numismatic Collection.

Cross References

Judd J-1766, Pollock P-1981