The half dollar was a woolly bear. I finally found an affordable example at Legend Auctions (don’t try that at home). Then I looked for several months for a cameo nickel. Never even saw one. ( probably all over the place now). Mike at ToughCoins, who aided my search, found the winning nickel at the recent Baltimore show.
Actually it was in 1858, but the coins were sold in sets according to their composition. The base metal, silver and gold coins were sold in separate sets. I think the idea was to make the cents and two and three cent pieces affordable if they were made. A dollar was worth a lot more in terms of the effort it took to earn one in 1858 and for years later. Therefore, buying the silver set was a big deal back then. Even though the gold set was priced only a few dollars over their face value, it was still a big deal at $42 or more. Very few were sold, sometimes as few as 20.
Thanks for the info. I was curious as to why the mintage of the base metal coins seemed to be different from the silver coins (which all had the same mintage).
Very cool. Like you originally started with, one of my all time bucketlist items is a Morgan proof. Preferably designated with cameo. I have completed a 1942 proof set. I have stumbled across some 1941 and earlier proofs at fairly reasonable prices. I have held off on buying one because like you…. I know I’ll have to complete that year lol.