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think of! Let''s take a brief look at these five areas, and how cameo''s rate in relation to other U.S. coinage. There are few coins in numismatics as attractive as a cameo proof. While some may disagree with this statement, there is no disputing currencyholder the opinions of literally thousands of collectors and dealers already familiar with this coinage. Proof coins themselves are minted specifically for collectors. As such, they have always represented the state-of-the-art in minting techniques. The mint has always gone to considerable trouble to produce these coins. Proof dies are highly polished and buffed until the surfaces possess a mirror-like perfection. Planchets go through extra steps in their preparation, until they too possess a brighter, satiny appearance. Traditionally, proof planchets have been hand-fed into the die, and have always been double struck, under higher pressures than business strikes, to bring out every possible detail. Once struck, the coins are handled individually so as not to abrade with other coins, as business strikes normally would. Cameo proofs were the very earliest strikes off new proof dies. During certain periods in the history of the mint, part of the die preparation process the nation. Subsequent population reports emanating from PCGS will reveal how very scarce the majority of proof issues are in cameo. With the release of the cameo proof book, and with PCGS'' and NGC''s leap into this market, cameo dealers and collectors will now have accurate, hard data with the release of these services'' grading reports to back up what we long-time cameo dealers and collectors currencyholder have known for years - that exceptional cameo examples of many dates are extremely rare, and are truly among the best values in U.S. numismatics today. Most collectors and dealers are very familiar with BU Franklins. The majority of uncirculated BU Franklin half dollars on the market are extremely baggy, and/or possess very heavy, unattractive brown or gray toning. These are ugly coins. The Franklin design is a work of art in its simplicity. The bust of Franklin on the obverse, and the famous Liberty bell on the reverse, are beautiful when their surfaces are clear and unblemished! In addition, many Franklins were issued by the mint in cardboard mint sets. The sulfur from these paper products often created some of the most beautifully toned coins in all of U.S. coinage! While rare, gem Franklin halves this market was virtually ignored 30 years ago. What brought it to prominence? Quite simply, information was made available that resonated with the collecting public. currencyholder At that time, high grade Morgan dollars were not even considered worth collecting by many numismatists, because they were thought to be so plentiful. In other words, though they ranked high in categories 1. Beauty, 2.Quality, and 4. Price, in collectors'' minds they ranked extremely low in category 3. - Rarity. Therefore, their desirability as a collectible was thought to be limited. However, several landmark books were published on Morgan dollars in the 1970''s and early 1980''s which educated the collecting public on many aspects of the Morgan dollar series they were not aware of. Probably the most significant of these books, Wayne Miller''s "The Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook", was the first book that provided an in-depth date-by-date analysis currencyholder of this series along with photographs. Significantly, currencyholder Miller was one of the first authors to estimate a date''s rarity not only in uncirculated condition, but also in gem MS 65 uncirculated condition, and gem MS 65 prooflike condition. This new information was a tremendous boon to the
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