Collecting United States Proof Coinage: 1950 - 1964

PCGS - Collectors of mid-20th-century United States coins often gravitate toward assembling sets of proof coins from this most vibrant of periods in American numismatic history. Many individuals often think of the 1950s and early 1960s as a golden era of coin collecting because it was a time when many of the classic U.S. coins of the late-19th and early 20th centuries could still be found in circulation, yet modern coinage, too, remained interesting.


Lincoln Cent (Wheat Reverse), 1950 1C, DCAM, PCGS PR67DCAM

The post-World War II years saw the releases of scarcer dates such as the 1949 Roosevelt dimes and 1950-D Jefferson nickel, not to mention the new pieces that included the first Lincoln Memorial cent in 1959 and Kennedy half dollars in 1964. And then there was the discovery of the 1955 Doubled Die Lincoln Cent - perhaps the most famous of all U.S. error varieties. The release of the U.S. proof sets of 1950 through 1964 tapped into a collector base that seemed to grow each year during that period; it's a reality borne out in the mintage figures for proof releases of the era, increasing in number virtually every year over year.

The 1950-1964 Proof Short Set is chronologically bookended by a wartime-impelled hiatus in proof coinage that spanned from 1943 until 1949; a moratorium on proof production from 1965 through 1967 occurred during a period when the United States Mint focused on striking circulation coinage to mitigate the effects of a nationwide coin shortage. The proof coins of the 1950s and early '60s were struck at the Philadelphia Mint and generally feature needle-sharp strikes as well as deeply mirrored surfaces. A small but significant minority of proof coins from this era exhibit cameo frosting on the devices and other details standing proud to the fields.

Read the Entire Article