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of rare coin values bu franklins i acquired, 100 rolls of 1963-d''s, a total of 2,000 coins, resulted in financial disaster for me and my partner. oh, the bag quantity was original all right. all the rolls were in their original bank-wrappings, and had obviously never been unwrapped. the coins in these rolls were beautiful, bright blazers. we submitted the 125+ coin collecting values nicest coins values to pcgs and ngc for grading, figuring if we got 40 or 50 ms 65''s we''d make a profit. the result? 5 ms 65''s!! the rest graded either ms 64 or ms 63. why? the majority had a couple too many bag marks (a common problem with bu franklins), rare or had a bit too much pitting on the high-points of the devices (another common problem with bu franklins), or were too softly struck to grade ms 65 (another common problem with bu franklins, or finally, had some very light hairline coin collecting values scratches, the result of having passed through a coin counter! by comparison, a single roll of late date walking liberty half dollars would likely have more gems among the 20 coins than the 1963-d franklins did among the 2,000. despite having populations a fraction of the walking liberty halves in gem condition, gem franklins are currently priced values well below the levels walkers are currently selling at. additionally, if one wishes to compare the populations rare of untoned, brilliant ms 65 walkers to untoned, brilliant ms 65 franklins, the population differences are even more striking in favor of the franklins! collector, coin for many dates which were considered fairly common in uncirculated condition, such as the 1879-o and 1880-o morgan dollar, were disclosed to be extremely scarce or values rare in gem ms 65 uncirculated grade and gem ms 65 prooflike! with these disclosures by a respected expert in the field, the morgan dollar market bloomed almost overnight. by the early 1980''s, it was the single largest area of collector interest in u.s. numismatics, simply because it was disclosed that in addition to the other benefits of 1. beauty, 2. quality, and 4. low price, many dates in the series also enjoyed a high degree of 3. rarity, in higher grade. the 1950-1970 cameo proof series is currently positioned at the same point the morgan dollar market found itself in the mid-1970''s. like the morgan dollar market at that time, the current rare cameo proof market has been enjoying increasing popularity among collectors with each coin passing year, despite the birth of published information values on the subject. the fact is, high grade cameo examples of many of the rarer cameo dates are so rare that few dealers have ever seen such coins. the cameo proof series, like the morgan dollar series, has been crying for a comprehensive book
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