How tough is the "CAM" designation for...

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• bidask Posts: 14,028 ✭✭✭✭✭

  November 26, 2006 9:48AM

  

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• dizzyfoxx Posts: 9,823 ✭✭✭

  November 26, 2006 11:12AM

  This isn't a 'trick' question???
  
  Any input?

  ...There's always time for coin collecting.

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• WTCG Posts: 8,940 ✭✭✭

  November 26, 2006 11:22AM

  
  
  << <i>...Seated Proofs (Halves, etc.) from the mid-to-late 1800's? >>
  
  
  
  Hardly. Many of the Seated Half dates, especially those from the later years come with a cameo contrast.

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• CarlWohlforth Posts: 11,074 ✭

  November 26, 2006 11:30AM

  Do you mean how tough are the grading companies at giving out the grade? Or do you mean how many of the coins are really cameo? Some years are tough to find with deep cameo contrast, others are easier. The services didn't give out the designation until some time after they gave them out to Franklins and other moderns. The thinking, as I understand it, was that cameo contrast on the 19'th century proofs was not uncommon and not worth much of a premium. So there still are undesignated cameos in older holders.

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• Mesquite Posts: 4,075 ✭✭✭

  November 26, 2006 2:05PM

  This is a PR63 (PCGS) I sold last year. No CAM designation; I was a bit surprised - guess it did not have the stuff CAMs are made of.
  
  

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• MikeInFL Posts: 10,188 ✭✭✭✭

  November 26, 2006 2:19PM

  In my opinion, there really has to be a lot of cameo in order to get the CAM designation -- much more than you would think. Also, PCGS and NGC are less likely to give a darkly toned coin (often with vibrant colors if tilted into the light) a CAM grade regardless of how well cameoed they are underneath the toning. That being said, by the 1850s, cameo coins were not uncommon, and by 1875 or so it got even better. By the 1890s, just about all halves showed some cameo contrast, yet only a relatively small percentage are worthy in the TPGs eyes. In my opinion, CAM and DCAM are too subjective to warrant huge price differences and the market seems to agree as the spreads between regular proofs and even DCAM is relatively small, particularly by the 1880s...Mike

  Collector of Large Cents, US Type, and modern pocket change.

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