The Coulomb barrier parameters have been calculated for a spherical–deformed interacting pair of nuclei using 14 different versions of the proximity approaches and a simple analytical formula for the Coulomb part of the heavy ion potential. The results of these proximity versions have been compared with more accurate results obtained from the double-folding model (DFM). We have considered the interacting pair 48Ca + 238Pu as an example and assumed the presence of the quadrupole, octupole, and hexadecapole deformation parameters for 238Pu. The orientation angle dependence of the Coulomb barrier parameters has been computed for different sets of deformation parameters. We found that the proximity types named Prox77, BW Prox91, AW Prox95, Bass Prox77, and Bass Prox80 are the best ones of the available 14 versions of the proximity approaches for calculating the nuclear part of the interaction potential for a spherical–deformed pair of nuclei.