I went to a coin show and some dealers had these really nice lamps with a magnifying glass being part of the head. They were the goose-neck style. Does anyone know a good one, the lenses were powerful and large.
I don't know any good name-brands, but these are common for people that do knitting (so I understand), you can find them at Walmart in the crafts/fabric section, or maybe even in with the table lamps. Ive seen cheaper ones going for about $20 or so.
I've got one that I got from The Sportsman's Guide, for about $25. It's $30 for non-members. http://www.sportsmansguide.com/cb/cb.asp?a=306789
American Science & Surplus. Toll free number 888-sciplus (888-724-7587) or FAX 800,934-0722. Of course you could go to their web site www.sciplus.com If you order thier catalog see pages 40, 41 and 42. Loaded with every type of magnification device possible. With lights, on stands, head mounted, flexible stands, etc. There is one of thier stores near me and it is a riot going through all the stuff in that place. The ones I bought were the head mounted magnifiers with built in lighting. Fantastic for coins. Also the one with the flex arm works great and the prices are really reasonable expescailly at the store. The catalog does not do the place justice though. They have complete aisles of magnifying items and if your into telescopes or microscopes you could get lost in that store for a long time.
I am not sure 1.75x is strong enough for me with my eyes I use a 5 and 10x now is it the light that makes it work so much better ? bRUCE.
In that catalog there is one for $8.95 that has from 2.2X to 8X, for head mounting, uses 2 AA bateries. Another one is shown with interchangable lenses but that one is $29.95. Another one without lights is $19.95 for head mounting. Lots of other desk mounted, hand held, wall mounted, etc. I have one of the head mounted ones I use mostly for removing splinters in my hands. Desk mounted one with lights is great for coins. Don't have to constantly worry about where my head is.
I picked up a nice 3x at Staples. Along with viewing coins, it's handy when it's time to work on painting minatures. The tricky part is trying to look through the magnifying lamp and then focusing my 5x hand magnifier through the 3x. Not quite as effective as using a real microscope, but it does the job.
To me, the light helps tremendously. Also, I take pictures with the help of the magnifier lamp. My digital camera doesn't have a macro feature, so I just put the coin under the magnifier light then use the normal zoom to take reasonably good pics.
I guess this thread is a little old, but the need for a quality magnifying lamp doesn't dissipate with age... Thought I'd throw my 2c in with this site - lots of magnifying lamp reviews there. I prefer the LED ones. Just something about LEDs that I love.
if you are patient and havent found the information yet i can get it from work.. my job uses them a lot...and those have i think 30x magnification..
But they put off a weird light that makes it hard to see some things. The best type of light to use when examining coins is incandescent.
The facts of optics work whether the lens is 1/4 inch or 6 inches. If it is a single lens, it is just a large magnifying glass with the distortion that would normally see. Some smaller ones like being discussed are triplet ( 3 glass piece designed to eliminate linear and color distortion) but these are more expensive and heavier than the simplex. A good triplet loupe or hand magnifier will give better performance ( especially in the error/variety group) and is much more than portable. Some also have light attachments. Take a coin with you and look at it carefully , especially the date ,mint mark, etc. and move the coin slightly and see what the image does. LEDs are easier to locate and use, but the light is sometimes too directional, making small scratches and defects seem major, so if photographing, incandescent lights still work best for me, or a mix of the 2. Jim
I ended up buying the best one I could afford (always a good idea in the long run). ProMagnify 90 LED model. Magnification and lens quality are excellent!
