Charles Edward Barber (November 16, 1840 – February 18, 1917) was the sixth chief engraver of the United States Mint from 1879 until his death in 1917. He had a long and fruitful career in coinage, designing most of the coins produced at the mint during his time as chief engraver. He did full coin designs, and he designed about 30 medals in his lifetime.The Barber coinage were named after him. In addition, Barber designed a number of commemorative coins, some in partnership with assistant engraver George T. Morgan. For the popular Colombian half dollar, and the Panama-Pacific half dollar and quarter eagle, Barber designed the obverse and Morgan the reverse. Barber also designed the 1883 coins for the Kingdom of Hawaii, and also Cuban coinage of 1915. Barber's design on the Cuba 5 centavo coin remained in use until 1961.

While much has been written about Barber being disagreeable and even hostile to Morgan, this has recently been conclusively disproved, with concrete evidence that the two had a warm personal relationship. This of course, makes perfect sense, as the two worked closely together for over 40 years