The fine line between cameo and no cameo.

Russ

Both coins have a solid cameo reverse. Just a little less brilliance on the neck and head of the second one would have done it.

Russ, NCNE

LanLord

A very timely post Russ, thanks, I was going to post a thread asking questions about cam versus no cam as well as cam versus dcam.

Russ

Lanlord,

Here's another comparison to help you:



The coin on the left is a DCAM, the one on the right, a CAM. The difference is the depth of the mirrors.

Russ, NCNE

LanLord

Nice examples. Is the depth of mirror a physical attribute of the field or something that a properly applied dip could improve upon?

Russ

A dip won't improve the depth of the mirrors unless the lack of depth is caused by haze. Matter of fact, over-dipping can damage the depth by dulling them somewhat.

Russ, NCNE

stman

It seems to judge cam vs dcam on these kennedys is like on morgan dollars being able to judge pl vs dmpl.

stman

presleyh

i think the real hard question is the difference between cameo and deep cameo. i have some kennedys of each designation and darned if i can see a difference. the cameos were dcam icg now are cameo pcgs. i guess i just cant see well enough to tell the difference at 20 x.

Russ

presleyh,

You're not the only one that has a hard time with it. Sometimes I think it amounts to nothing more then a subjective decision by the grader - "beauty is in the eye of the beholder".

Russ, NCNE

presleyh

i went on and sent 5 icg kennedy dcams in the holder to pcgs today. i put to cross at any grade. they look really nice but. like i say i was wrong before. we shall know in a couple of weeks.

keets

i'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but the two sets of photos you put up were easy to distinguish between what would be cameo and non-cameo and what would be CAM or DCAM. since i collect jeffersons, i'm tuned into the jawline and the outsides of the monticello which is where the frost seems to fade first. when it loses it there, it loses DCAM, and when it loses it past those points it loses CAM. and it goes without saying that they require both sides of the coin for a designation. i assume it's the same with each individual series having it's frost break points. mirrors are important, also, from the fact that they help provide the nice contrast, but i tend to judge cameo by frost first.

one thing that drives me nuts is when you find a really knockout-cameo-one-sided-coin!!

al h.