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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;KTO, post: 1436142, member: 37914&quot;]Among modern proofs, I find the Franklin Half Dollar series interesting because you can find proofs of the same date with an overall mirror finish and other proofs with a cameo finish. Apparently, training and production standards were not uniformly followed at the mint in the 1950&#039;s, so while some dies were polished only the background areas of the die giving the proof coin a &quot;frosty&quot; cameo, other operators polished the entire die prior to press work, which gives the mirror finish to both the background and design elements. To be fair to any former Mint employees, there was great demand for the more time-consuming proofs at the time and the Mint was probably understaffed to handle it.</p><p><br /></p><p>As regards the cameo proof strikes, since the Franklin is such a large coin it is also easier to distinguish on observation a deep cameo design (graded DCAM Proof) that would have resulted from an early strike of a proof die before the edges of the design became slightly worn and produced a regular cameo appearance (graded CAM Proof) or less. For many modern proofs, the CAM distinction is irrelevant because all the proofs have a cameo appearance, but it does have more significance with the Franklin proofs.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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