Kennedy Question Russ and Other Expert on A/H's

tgilliams

I'm sure this question has been answered, i'm mistaken in my limited knowledge etc. if i remember the story, Mrs Kennedy wanted and received some design adjustments to the coin-hair etc. i would have assumed these coins then would have to be 1st off the dies. shouldn't there be more DCAM 1964 A/H's

DHeath

Breen estimated 55-60 obverse dies were used to mint the AH coins. It's a good question though. Since this was the first obverse die design, one would expect the first 50 coins from each die to exhibit some cameo, and the first 20 to be dcam. Assuming these early strikes were matched with new reverse dies (doubtful), it would be logical to assume there are 1200 possible Dcams and 1800 Cams. Subtract from that number the coins with milkspots, the hairlined coins, and the coins damaged by dipping or mishandling, and the number of quality pices is relatively small. I think it's reasonable to assume the number of coins struck from two new dies would be on the order of 400 pieces. JMO

DHeath

I just went and looked at Tomaska's book to refresh my memory of his estimates. He assumed as few as 10 coins were struck from each new die before the cameo effect began to fade, but he also placed his estimate of the population in UltraCameo and at grade 65 and above at 450 pieces.

Russ

The mint was frankly very sloppy in the early production because it was basically a zoo at the time. The presses weren't in the best condition and were not producing the pressures they should have been. Coins were stamped out as quickly as possible to meet unprecented demand, and the maintenance of the dies was lackluster at best.

Since there was no effort to keep both obverse dies and reverse dies in the same condition, frequently resulting in mis-matched pairs, I'd guess that no more than five true two sided deep cameo coins were produced from each obverse die. My own estimate of surviving two sided DCAMs is around 200 at best.

Russ, NCNE

MadMarty

I have been looking for years but haven't found a DCAM yet. Even CAMs are very hard to find.