Using my scanner....is this a viable way to get jpgs of my coins? Will they get scratched or damaged in any way?
I use a scanner to scan my coins and I have no problem with damaging anything(ie the scanner or the coin). Its best to scan through a clean 2x2. Also as a tip, its best, IMO, to save the scan as a PNG. PNGs just hold more information than a JPG(JPE or JPEG), GIF or BMP; also a PNG file will not lose any information when saving multiple times while a JPG can. Also scans do not show any lustre and it is hard if not nearly impossible to show good toning.
since PNG is a compressed file format, there is no way it would hold more info than a BMP. BMP is a raw image format, and therefore there is no information lost due to saving. Other formats like Jpeg throw out certain info at the edges of the color spectrum in order to save to a smaller file. I have never had an issue with scanned coins getting damaged, but the images are just not that good. at least mine werent lol good luck on yours
I appologize about adding BMP with JPG. Got a little overzealous. I still prefer PNGs because BMPs are too big of a file that really isn't nesesary since PNG work fine. Another thing to that I don't like is that bitmap file types are Microsoft products, and I personally hate Microsoft. But that is OT. Anyway...Cheers!
You can get decent scans of coins if you are willing to play around with your settings and the coin is worth it
De Orc! I didn't know it snows this time of year where you live!!! Great scans. Hawk, even if you're never satisfied with a scanned image, sometimes it's worth it to do a quick scan of a coin. It can show and highlight "problems" that you may not even notice under a loupe. I haven't mastered the scanner, but I do use it to inspect coins I'm not sure about.
Now I play around with my scanner for hours every day and have never been able to do that. How in the world did you do that?
GDJMSP told me that months ago and if you play around with the coin getting the best height and angle the scan looks almost as good as a camera photo. Question: what are the smallest H and W dimensions your scanner will allow you to scan? Mine allows only 0.1in for H and 0.1in for W. Epson V200
Wow -- I am blown away by DeOrc's scans! I can't get any luster on my coins either. But for circulated copper cents, or any other coins that don't have any shine left to them, my scans come out decent enough for my own use. I also put them on a dark background. (Trivia question: can anyone guess what the background of this was):
Byrd740, I don't know how you scanner does it. The smallest area I can crop down to is a .1in HxW box. No smaller. Sure within that box may be 1mm objects or smaller that I can scan too. My scanner will go to virtual dbi of 12800.
1200 dbi sounds like enough to get sharp images in a 1mm box. MY 0.1in=2.5mm. We are both definately in the same ballpark. Have to learn more about getting sharper images in that zone.:smile
The images still doesn't get very sharp at 1200 dpi. It works, but its hard for me to please myself when I try at something. So no matter how much I try, I will never be pleased.
For the pics I posted so far here on this forum, I used my HP scanner to scan the silver art bars. I had no problems at all. I use a scanner because I do not have a digital camera yet.
I have been surprised at how well the scanner does as compared to my digital camera. Depending on the coin, you can play around with both white and black backgrounds, and placing the coins at various orientations to the scan direction. There's no damage to the coin because nothing that touches it ever moves.
