|
|
opportunity to own the "ultimate". I recently sold a 1954 NGC Cameo PF 66 Lincoln cent, ultra-heavily contrasted, to a client for $400. No other series in U.S. numismatics today offer the collector so much quality, eye-appeal, and rarity, for so little money. If there is any doubt as to the rarity of a 1954 ultra-heavy cameo Lincoln cent, go out and try to find another! Attend the next local coin show. Attend the next ANA show, the next FUN show (one of the currencyholders two or three largest shows of the year). Good luck! You will find other U.S. coins of far lower quality, with far less appeal, that are far more common, for the same amount of money! You won''t find that 1954 cameo cent!There are many other dates currencyholders and denominations in the cameo proof series as undervalued as the 1954 cameo Lincoln. The series is loaded with "sleepers". The Special Mint Set coinage of the 1965 to 1967 period are sleepers, as is the 1950 currencyholders ultra-heavy Cameo PF 65 Franklin (yes, even at $6500 - it is one of the great rarities of twentieth century coinage), 1951 ultra-heavy Cameo PF 65 Franklin, 1952 ultra-heavy Cameo PF 65 Franklin The most popular single market in U.S. numismatics today is unquestionably the silver dollar market. Yet, packaging used for these earlier coins, it almost seems a miracle that any high quality cameos from the 1950 to 1970 currencyholders era exist at all! The finest cameos, being early strikes off proof dies, are quite simply "the best of the best", for they are not only struck from proof dies, the finest possible dies, but are struck from those dies when they are in their most pristine, unworn state! There could not be a more striking difference between one of these first cameo strikes, and between a coin struck much later off the die - a brilliant proof. If one did not know better, one would think that the two coins were struck from two completely different dies! In a sense, they were. More correctly, they were both struck from the same die, but one coin was struck before that die had experienced the wearing effect of 100''s of tons of pressure of metal on metal, and one coin was struck after that die had experienced those wearing effects. The opportunity of owning scarce, attractive coins that also are the ultimate in quality for their era has a very special appeal to collectors. It also gives these coins tremendous "upside" potential, as it very hard to pay too much for coins that offer the collector the
|