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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. currency u.s. currency coinage. there are few coins in numismatics as attractive as a cameo proof. while some may disagree with this statement, there is no disputing 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 currency 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 u.s. coins 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 currency 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 devoted to it. here is one final, very important similarly between the morgan 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 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 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 u.s. instituted their own two-tier system similar to pcgs'' in the spring of 1995. with pcgs and ngc now involved, currency novices will for the first time have their coins recognized by the most widely used grading service in collector, 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 rare in gem ms 65 uncirculated grade and gem ms 65 prooflike! with these disclosures u.s. by a respected expert currency 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 cameo proof market has been enjoying increasing popularity among collectors u.s. with each passing year, despite the birth of published information on the subject. the fact is, high grade cameo examples of currency 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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