Techniques pertaining to all proofs of this time-frame but more so detailing the "Franklin Half Dollar"

Greetings Collectors,

I write this completly exausted from the ordeal encountered getting confirmed on my purchase of the "Lincoln five coin proof set" that was offered today beginning at twelve noon. The details of this will take up an entire post later this week. All I can say is, "what an ordeal".

Proof coinage has come a long way to what we have today. The proofs of the 50's through the 60's were made much like the proofs of the 19th century. You might say that beginning in the mid 70's was when we changed from the "old" way of producing proofs to the "new" way. In this part two I want to touch on the "preparation" of the dies and some of the major differances between proofs from the 50's and present day proofs due to the processes leading up to the actual striking of the coins.

Present day dies are "sandblasted" to bring out the "heavy" cameo effect and going a step further, the dies are "chrome" plated to make that heavy cameo effect last longer. These two things have done more than anything else to give us the heavy frosted cameo effect that collectors want in their proof coins. In the pre-70's era the complete proof process was more an art performed by "craftsmen", thus as in any craft, there are good "craftsmen" and ones not so good, making the "human element" a major factor.

Some aspects of proof coinage have remained the same over the years in that all proof dies are made at the Philidelphia mint and they all started as "regular production" dies. Several additional steps were taken for the proof dies that were not done for the regular or "business strike" dies.

Modern proof dies are cleaned with a solvent to remove any oil or other contaminants from the surface of the die. To achieve the cameo effect, they are sandblasted, followed by being polished and buffed in the "fields" with a diamond dust compound and then they are chrome plated. In the 50's the dies were dipped in a bath made up of 5% nitric acid and 95% alcohol. This "pickling" technique created a very light, and more importantly a very delicate frosting over the entire surface of the die. Lastly the craftsman would check for irregularities or uneveness and to correct any, a cotton ball dipped in the same acid/alcohol would be used to "touch up" areas in need. After this cameo effect was created, then the dies were polished and buffed again with diamond dust that did not reach the "recessed areas". This was done first with a wooden mandrill and then a felt tipped one thus giving the two tone effect of frost and mirrors. In the older process the frost was very delicate and could be damaged/removed or a portion brushed away with a slip of a finger. The newer process of sandblasting and further strengthened by the chrome plating makes this area of frost much more pronounced & durable.

Many factors of die prep determined the number of cameo proofs that were struck. The longer the "acid bath" the greater the cameo effect and the longer that effect lasted on each particular die. This may be the reason that as each years proof mintages went up, a shortened "soak" would lead to fewer heavy cameo proofs atained. It is the opinion of some that as the master die continued to head "south" in detail, due to the more and more dies being made, they tried to person_having_a_hard_time_understanding_my_point the breakdown by shortening the length of the acid bath. In the Franklin proof series there is a big differance in hair detail among other areas from the proof strikes of 1950 coins compared to the 1959 coin. (as in my previous post, the master die was finally "reworked" for proof halves minted starting in 1960) On a side note that reworked master die was in great detail everywhere but the "bell lines" on the reverse thus the reason for the extreme rarity of "full bell line" Franklins of 1960-1963. Also on the same raity note, as the 50's progressed with more proof Franklins were being minted and the dies were being soaked for less and less time, the "cameo" '57 was more rare than the '56 and the '58 more rare than the '57 and the '59 much rarer still.

Another major reason than affected the durability of the cameo die was the quality and hardness of the steel used to make the dies. Quality control was in its infancy and differant batches of steel coupled with the Philadelphia die makers inability of properly tempering them. Some were quite soft and wore rapidly and the cameo effect would not last as long. Other dies were too hard and brittle and would crack or break under the intense pressure of the presses, along with the multiple strikes.

There is also one final possibility that the rarity of cameos and ultra cameos of the 50's in not only the Franklin half but in the nickel and cent issues as well. They are all very rare in the upper grades of cameo because the dies may have rarely been "pickled" at all, thus accounting for, in some cases, few if any at all, of highly contrasted cameo proofs in the smaller denomonations.

Alot of this info was procurred from past and present Phily mint employees and while may or may not be entirely accurate one can only speculate as to the quality of Federal govt. workers and the effort put forth, to put out the best quality product possible. In addition one can only look at the total number of quality proof pieces per the census at NGC and PCGS. I think that most of you will agree that a proof 68 or 69 cameo or ultra/deep cameo coin of any denomination from the 50's is indeed a very rare coin.

In part three I will touch on the preparation of the planchets, which for those of you that don't know, is the long strips of the metal, be it copper or silver that the dies punch through and out comes the finished coin. I trust that all of you are having fun with your coins. I know I am. Happy Collecting! WKF