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packaging used for these earlier coins, it almost seems a miracle that any high quality cameos from the 1950 to 1970 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, u.s. coin values and coin 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. values 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 successive coin struck from one of these u.s. dies would exhibit somewhat less cameo contrast than the coin before. coin eventually, the intense pressure of die on planchet would wear the devices to the same smooth, brilliant appearance as the surrounding fields of the coin. these subsequent coins, brilliant proofs, have no discernible contrast between the devices and fields. they are also far more common than the earlier cameo strikes. in recognition of the collector demand for these cameos, values the mint began experimenting with sandblasting techniques in the early-mid 1970''s which helped create a much more intense u.s. cameo effect. they also began chromeplating the dies to give them added durability. as a result of these coin new techniques, proof dies today can strike many hundreds of exceptional "black & white" cameos before they begin to wear. what is somewhat astonishing, however, is that if one is patient, and fortunate, values one can occasionally u.s. find cameos minted from the earlier 1950 to 1970 era that possess the intense cameo contrast, quality, and eye-appeal of these later proofs! these very early strikes, depending coin on the year, are obviously quite rare. when one also considers the inferior nature of the proof devoted to it. here is one final, very important similarly between values the morgan u.s. dollar series and the cameo proof series: in grading prooflike morgan dollars, the two largest grading services in the nation, pcgs (professional coin grading service) and ngc (numismatic guaranty corporation), offer two grades of prooflike for that series - "dmpl" (deep mirror prooflike) - for the very earliest strikes off the business die, and a simple "pl" (prooflike) - for the slightly later strikes. pcgs and ngc now offer a similar delineation coin for all proof coinage from the 1950 to 1970 era. as of early february, 1992, pcgs offers two cameo designations for early strike cameo proofs - "dcam" (deep cameo - roughly equivalent to what we refer to as "ultra-heavy") - for those values cameo proofs which were the very earliest strikes off the proof die, with the heaviest contrast, and a simple "cam" (cameo) designation for those coins which were slightly later strikes, but which still possess significant cameo contrast. ngc instituted their own two-tier system similar to pcgs'' in the spring of 1995. with pcgs and ngc now involved, novices will for the first time have their coins recognized by the most widely used grading service in
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