Sir Charles Oman was born in Muzaffarpur in India in 1860 into a colonialist family. He was sent back to the UK to be educated at Winchester College and went on to study History at the University of Oxford in All Souls College. He remained at Oxford, working his way up to professor, and becoming president of The Royal Numismatic Society, Royal Historical Society and Royal Archaeological Institute. He wrote numerous books, including 'The Coinage of England', which the Barber Coin Library has a copy of through the donation of the library of Geoffrey Haines, through whose coin collection the Barber also has coins previously of Charles Oman. Most of the coins from the collection were given to Haines by Oman's son, also called Charles Oman, in 1949, 3 years after the elder Charles Oman's death.

Oman also served as Conservative member of parliament for the constituency of the University of Oxford (which remained a constituency returning 2 MPs to the House of Commons until 1950!) between 1919 and 1935.

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