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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;19Lyds, post: 2718400, member: 15929&quot;]Ya know Doug, I have a hard time believing that the 1964 SMS coins were trial strikes for the 1965-1967 SMS Sets since not ONE of them has a Cameo or even close to a CAMEO finish. I&#039;d also discount that the same dies were used for the 1965-1967 for the above reason.</p><p><br /></p><p>Every one of the 1964 SMS coins has a satin finish with bunches and bunches of die polish lines in the fields. If ANYTHING at all, the 1964 SMS sets were put together to show the mint director what a &quot;Special Set&quot; might look like since they weren&#039;t going to produce any proof sets but wanted to produce something for the collectors. </p><p><br /></p><p>Unbeknownst to many, the US Mint had been preparing &quot;special dies for special coins&quot; to be sent to the Smithsonian for inclusion in the National Numismatic Collection (NNC) since 1958. This continues until 1979. These coins were uncharacteristically high grade for typical uncirculated examples and were obviously produced with special dies which gave the coins a satin type finish.</p><p>The August 5, 2013 edition of Coin World details the discovery.</p><p><br /></p><p>Based upon that story, I&#039;m more inclined to think that the 1964 SMS Sets were produced using the same techniques for possible SMS sets in the future. Since none of the 1965-1967 SMS Sets have anythiong even close to what the 1064 SMS coins look like, I&#039;m thinking that the idea was canned and they simply opted for semi-proof die preparation with higher tonnage single strike presses.</p><p><br /></p><p>Charles Morgan, a noted numismatic journalist that writes for CoinWeek, was visiting the Smithsonian and was able to view some of the IKE Dollars which had been produced with this special process. He firmly believed that the coins were MS68 or higher even though the journalists/researchers that made the discovery arranged to have some good examples sent to NGC for grading. None of the IKE graded higher than SP67 and only a scant few of the other coins hit the SP68 mark.</p><p><br /></p><p>BUT, the coins DO have a marked difference from what we normally see from the production presses.</p><p><br /></p><p>The mystery surrounding the 1964 SMS Sets will never be solved and only speculative stories exist. But one thing is absolutely certain, the 1964 SMS coins bear absolutely no resemblance to the SMS coins of 1965-1967.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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