Lights and grading

I glanced at an article about how different types of light affects how you see and how you would grade a coin , unfortunately I can't remember where I seen it . I know a 80 watt regular light bulb is good for general grading , but halide and fluorescent lights either bring out the hits or hide them , so please let me know of your experiences with different light sources and what you think of them , Thanks .
rzage:thumb:

 

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I use a full-spectrum lightbulb. Mine is a Tensor, but Ott-lite is good too.

You can't see the proper color of a coin with a regular light.

 

Correct.
I use OTT-LITEs.
Sunlight works too.

 

The guy that wrote Coin Collecting for Dummies, claims he worked in a grading room at a certification company in which each grading station had a desk lamp with a 75 watt incadescent, and all the overhead lights were turned off.

 

Personally when I go to a show if the dealer does not have a good light in the area I skip them just to make sure I do not miss something on the coin. I find at home getting it under one of my bright reveal lights really makes things come out. The dealer has good regular fluorescent lighting that I can see all of the coin under. Only for taking pictures do I use an OTT type light - seems to help, but I still need to work more at it. Just my opinion.

 

Well it seems all these opinions express what I would have said. But I don't mind sharing a story on the subject.
I went to a coinshop in Edmonton, one of the few, when I walked in ( this is no exaggeration I swear) there was one flickering fluorescent light. One.
Needless to say I didn't buy anything.

 

Color corrected fluorescent lights (like an Ott light), which also happen to be diffused, are good for judging color of coins, but not optimal for judging hits/hairlines/strike and thus not good for grading.

Point source lights (like incandescent, and even moreso halogen) are better for judging strike and hits/hairlines, and in general are better for grading. However their color cast makes them less effective at judging color.

All IMHO...Mike

 

I did - at the few coin shows I have gone to I have skipped sellers that do not have good lighting in the area. When I went to the last one downtown there were several sellers that had overhead lights turned out - yet no lighting for the customer. There were 3 or 4 sellers in that area - I skipped all of them and went to the first table with overhead lights. Now that I think about it that group of tables had very few people at them.

 

I use 3 60 watt bulbs

I use 3, 60 watt bulbs one above the desk at 12 inches, one at 18 and one above all the others - I can see the pieces of dust inside the mint-mark on a cent. Now I adjust them accordingly but only use incandescent and run don't walk away from natural sunlight or fluorescent light source. I also only use 10x, 14x, 20x and 5x all bausch and loumb hasting triplets for all grading, searching and attributing - nothing else is needed for me.

 

I use ott lights...

Some other dealers at shows call my lights "ugly lights" cause their coins all look ugly under my lights... I think its just their coins hahaha

I think they really bring out any little hits or rubs..

 

Makes you wonder what their coins really looked like :bigeyes: , But does anyone know of a recent article on lights and how the different ones bring out different properties in a coin , or Am I JUST GETTING SENILE:crying: and imagine this article .
rzage:hatch::hammer:

 

Mike ,How big are these ott lights and are they battery powered to bring to a coin show ?
Rusty

 

I use two lamps spaced about a foot apart when viewing coins. A 20 watt halogen, and a 100 incandescent, clear bulb.

 

What do they use at PCGS?

 

No you are not - it seems to me someone posted a link on this board or maybe it was even on this board(I think it was a link). Where someone took multiple pictures of the same coin with a variety of lights and different settings. You could then see what the pictures of the coins looked like under the different lights. I wish I had book marked the site.

 

Thanks I was really starting to think I imagined it , I thought it was an issue of the Numismatist , but failed to find it online .
Rusty:hatch::hammer:

 

For a coin show, you might want to go to yer local auto parts dealer and pick up a pocket pen light... Most are LED now and throw great light... I always have a pen light and loupe with me...

 

thats all very good you two but what of the poor collector who cant find any of those

 

A GE Reveal incandescent bulb with any old desk lamp is a good compromise between the two, and only a few bucks at Walmart.