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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 values of old u.s coins extremely scarce or 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 of almost overnight. by the early 1980''s, it was the single largest area of collector interest in old 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 u.s dollar market found itself in the mid-1970''s. like the morgan dollar market at that time, the current cameo proof market has been coins enjoying increasing popularity among collectors with each passing year, despite the birth of published information 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. values the cameo proof series, like the morgan dollar series, has been crying for a comprehensive book of 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 of the 125+ nicest coins to pcgs and ngc old for grading, figuring if we got 40 or 50 ms 65''s we''d make u.s a profit. the coins result? 5 ms 65''s!! the rest graded either ms 64 or ms 63. why? values the majority had a couple too many bag marks of (a common problem with old bu franklins), or had a bit too much u.s 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 coins with bu franklins, or finally, had some very light hairline scratches, the result of having passed through a coin counter! by comparison, values a single roll of late date walking liberty half dollars of would likely have more gems old 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 well below the levels walkers are currently selling at. additionally, if one wishes to compare the populations of untoned, brilliant ms 65 walkers to untoned, brilliant u.s and coins ms 65 franklins, the population differences are even more striking in favor of the franklins!
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