Art historian Cornelius Vermeule, in his work on U.S. coins, took a more positive view of Barber's coinage: "the last word as to their aesthetic merits has yet to be written. Little admired or collected for more than three generations after their appearance [writing in 1971], these essentially conservative but most dignified coins have suddenly become extremely popular with collectors".
Cornelius Vermeule, an art historian who wrote about U.S. coins, believed that Barber's coinage was aesthetically pleasing and had been overlooked for a long time. He noted that the coins were "essentially conservative but most dignified" and that they had recently become very popular with collectors.