  Previous optical studies found an unexpected deficit of bars at z > 0.7. To
investigate the effects of bandshifting, we have studied the fraction of barred
spirals in the NICMOS Deep Field North. At z > 0.7 we find at least four barred
spirals, doubling the number previously detected. The number of barred galaxies
is small because these (and previous) data lack adequate spatial resolution. A
typical 5 kpc bar at z > 0.7 is only marginally detectable for WFPC2 at
0.8microns; the NICMOS data have even lower resolution and can only find the
largest bars. The average size of the four bars seen at z > 0.7 is 12 kpc. The
fraction of such large bars (4/95) is higher than that seen in nearby spirals
(1/44); all known selection effects suggest that the observed fraction is a
lower limit. However, important caveats such as small numbers and difficulties
in defining comparable samples at high and low redshifts should be noted. We
conclude that there is no significant evidence for a decrease in the fraction
of barred spirals beyond z ~ 0.7.
