What percentage of proof coins from the 1970's are DCAM?
AllCoinsRule
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I assume once you get to the mid 80's that all of them are? But what about the 70's or very early 80's? Or 60's and earlier? Just curious!
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You can find some brilliant proofs in proof sets for 1971 and 1972. Starting in 1973 it is much harder to find brilliant proofs as most are cameo. I suspect that by 1977 all proof coins are at least cameo.
It would be interesting to see collectors hunt for and assemble "brilliant proof" proof sets for the 1970's. I bet doing so is a lot harder than one would imagine. The cost of these coins would be minimal, but the time spent hunting for them would be great.
1971 was my toughest years, a good bit less than 5% and many of those were not high grades. 1970 and 1975 were about equivalent, somewhere around 4%-5%. 1976 through 1979 maybe about 10%. 1972, 1973 & 1974 something less than 10%. That was about 8-9 years ago.
David
From 1965 on the number of frosted coins from the proof presses increased about every year. 1969 was
an exception if memory serves. Big increases were in '67 and '71. In the early years and 1970 one sided
cameos were more common. 1972 and 1973 also saw nice improvements in quality. These years the im-
provements began becoming more widespread and affecting more parameters of quality. Cameos remaind
fairly common until a further improvement in '78 probably the results of swapping dies more frequently. I'd
say it was '83 that proofs became routinely DC though even the '81 and '82 are close. Around '87 quality
began falling (especially packaging stability) and it has fluctuated since but remaining quite high with DC
being typical.
By 1978, the mint had introduced new die technology that virtually insured that they could run a large quantity of dcams before retiring the dies.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!