I'm looking for a 10x loupe with the widest field of view possible. I found one that's about 20mm across, but does anyone know if they come in 1" wide? Thanks for your help!
My favorite dealer gave me one for Xmas. He's a national known small cent dealer. It's made by Eschenbach (Germany) and he says it's the best he's ever used. It's 20mm (sorry, not an inch) but is comprised of two lenses, a 3x and a 6x which when used together gives you 9x. A neat feature is that the 6x works when laid on the glass of a standard dealer's case. Don't have to get the coins out; nice for when no one is there or the dealer is busy.
I thought I was the only one to "glass" a dealers case at shows, lol I like my Bausch and Lomb Hastings, never tried an Eschenbach, but I did just order a Zeiss because I got a rip price on it. Problem is, the B&L's are small.....ask GD about my 20X, lol
You're gonna have a hard time finding a 10x much bigger than 20mm, don't know that I've ever even seen one. But the Baush & Lomb 5x has a 40mm view.
I was under the impression that 10x was generally the max used for grading. Am I right or wrong? Anything above 10x was used for detecting coin features used as diagnostics for varieties (doubling, repunches, etc.)
Sounds like a good magnifying glass to me... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...x magnifying glass"&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw
One thing you might want to try is buying an old, cheap zoom lens for an SLR camera - you can get them from Fleabay for much less than $100. Something like this. Then it's a quick job with a small screwdriver to take it apart and experiment with the different lens elements until you find one that magnifies the amount you want. You can even encase it in a short length of PVC - and paint it your favorite color. Look for older, manual focus lenses which will cost much less. Just make sure that the the lens is haze and fungus free, and not scratched.
This is 7X but its 35mm http://www.wizardcoinsupply.com/product/eschenbach-mobilux-illuminated-magnifier-35mm-7x.html
The naked eye is recommended for the vast majority of grading. When magnification is used, and that's only when your eye sees something that makes you want to look at it closer, 5x is recommended. 5x is also used for ultra grades - 69 & 70. Anything stronger than that is used to detect counterfeits, alterations, cleaning, varieties & errors.
You're correct, at least according to Coin World. They reported that the pros generally follow this procedure: 1. Naked eye evaluation. 2. 5x to 7x magnification look. 3. Naked eye evaluation again, just to determine if what they saw under magnification is naked eye visible. 10x and up are used for determining varieties, counterfeits, fakes, etc.
