Hi there, New Member Jim here. Been lurking for months, was finally able to join yesterday. This is my first new post. I mentioned these two Ikes in a thread I replied to yesterday - Ike Dollars. The last batch of Ikes I acquired included two 1776-1976-S clad proofs! These have obviously been out circulating for awhile. Nice surprise! Question I have is did Ike clad proofs of this vintage have frosted devices? The Ike on the left in particular, while pretty well circulated, appears somewhat as frosted devices. Obverse 1776-1976 S Ikes Reverse 1776-1976 S Ikes Can't seem to post pics yet so I'm trying links to pics. Will be working on getting better at taking quality pics. (If the links work I've included both obverse & reverse, and cropped the pics . I've been learning already!)
@ja59 Welcome to the neighborhood, Jim! If I recall correctly, the Mint produced two Ike dollars at the San Francisco Mint in 40% silver. One, called the Brown Ike, came in a (drum roll please!) brown box and was a proof coin. The other, called the Blue Ike, came in a (drum roll please!) blue envelope and was an uncirculated coin. The SF Mint also produced a copper/nickel clad dollar in proof only. There are two varieties for these coins. Variety 1 has bold print on the reverse, and Variety 2 has delicate print on the reverse. Only Variety 1 was used for the 40% silver coins while, both, Variety 1 and Variety 2 were used for the clad coins. From your photos, the one on the left is Variety 2 (delicate print), and the one on the right is Variety 1 (bold print), but I can't tell if they are silver or clad. I would have to see the edges. Chris
There was no "Blue Ike" for the 1776-1976 issue. The 40% silver Uncirculated version was part of a three piece set that included the Bicentennial quarter and half dollar. Most of them were sold in a red envelope, so perhaps you could call them "red Ikes."
Thanks for the info! I definitely see the Type 1 / Type 2 difference. Pretty sure these are clad, as I see copper on the edges of both. Their weight is Type 1 = 22.54 g, Type 2 = 22.4 g. I believe that puts them in the clad weight range. I believe Silver Ikes would come in about 24.6 g. Anyway just was wondering about the Type 2 looking frosted. Not sure if they were Frosting the devices back then. I guess it could just be circulation wear. Again, pretty cool to find these in a bunch of circulated Ikes!
Cameo frost on the proof coins became pretty consistent starting in 1973. The level of cameo still varied though.
Thanks Conder. A little more research on my part shows one website alone (thesprucecrafts.com) listing the following combinations of types, varieties, composition of proofs: 1971, 1972, 1977 & 1978 - 3 different proofs for each year - Proof, Cameo & Deep Cameo 1973 & 1974 - 6 different proofs for each year - Silver Proof, Cameo & Deep Cameo and again in Clad Proof, Cameo & Deep Cameo 1776 / 1976 - 9 different proofs - Silver Proof, Cameo & Deep Cameo, Type 1 Clad Proof, Cameo & Deep Cameo, and Type 2 Clad Proof, Cameo & Deep Cameo. If that list is accurate, that's 33 different proof issues for a series that has 7 years of minting. Wow. Cool.
I'd say that the PF/Cam/DCam variants shouldn't count as separate issues, just different... die states, I guess?
