Grading a Wheat Penny

This coin looks very nice in hand, bright luster, the only two marks I notice unmagnified are something just below "IN" on the obverse and to the left of "CENT" on the reverse and neither of those is absolutely leaping out at you, either.

I'm really having a hard time, though, trying to figure out the higher levels of grading. I've tried looking at various pictures online and even some of the "Guess the Grade" ones here, but... I dunno. Maybe I just don't have an eye for it.

Any reasonable chance of this grading over 65?

 

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First off, you need to adjust your white balance when taking pictures like that. When I played with the color, you coin appears to be full red and at least have descent luster.

If it truly has nice luster, it should go 66. I cannot tell well enough from your picture, but I would not rule 67 out. BTW, why don't you wait until I post the result from these 4 Guess the Grades before you listen to some of the others. They might be in for a shock.

 

Thanks for your input, rlm. I thought I had adjusted the white balance! Maybe it's my lighting that's insufficient?

 

I did not touch your brightness. All I really had to do was turn your blue background to white and it looked nice and red. You might also try center focusing your camera.

 

Here are some new photos I took. I think these pictures are better. Unfortunately (for me) they also show a mark next to Abe's ear which I hadn't noticed previously.

 

i agree with rlm. from the pictures i would guess a 66 or 67. its a nice coin though!

 

What color is your background? If it really is blue, use something else. My guess is that it is white and that means you need to set your white balance.

 

Georgia Pacific Everyday Copy & Print Paper
92 Brightness
145 Whiteness

More than you wanted to know but I see what you're saying about the "white" paper not really looking white in the photos. Guess I'll try once more!

 

OK, manually adjusted the camera's white balance towards Yellow and away from Blue several steps. Let's see how these look.

 

It seems to me like there's a bit o' damage on the top of the "O" in "ONE".

 

The penny is starting to look red, but your white paper is still blue. Don't you have an auto set on the white balance?

 

Just use a soft white towel.

 

Yes, that was what I was using in the first pictures. I started from that and moved it towards Yellow and away from Blue for the most recent set.

I can try adjusting the white balance some more another night, but it's getting pretty late and I need to call it a night.

Now that you've seen a few different photos including the hit by the ear and the slight deformation at the top of the "O" in "ONE" on the reverse... Is 66 still a reasonable possibility?

Thanks again for your help, everyone. I'm trying to get the hang of it, but it's not coming easily! (I suppose if it did, then everyone'd be doing it!)

 

The hits and nicks are not going to keep that coin from a 67. I saw those on the first pic. It is the luster I am having trouble reading, but that is what will determine 66 / 67.

BTW, regardless of what we say here, some one seeing it in hand will have a better idea of the grade.

 

Yep, I understand that. I'll try the suggestion for a soft white towel soon and post those pics. Now I really AM going to call it a night!

 

Don't use a towel, white copy paper is perfect, it's what I use. You have a couple simple problems....you're so close to a great pic it's not funny!

1) Get your light source closer, use a desk lamp that you can freely move as needed. You don't want so much that's it's over-exposed or has too much glare. There's a trick between the angle/position/distance of the light source and the distance of the camera to the coin. This is exactly why I take all my pictures free-hand without tripods or copy stands.....none of that is needed unless you have Parkinson's. LOL My cams have image stabilization that works very well.....most decent cams have IS.
2) Put your color balance back to neutral! Do not try to tweak it or it won't represent the coin properly.
3) CALIBRATE your white balance. All decent digital cameras have a way to manually set the white balance. Get your lighting right, position the camera exactly how you would when taking the coin pic, and then calibrate the white balance against the white piece of paper.

You're really doing a great job, you just need a couple little tweaks and some practice and your shots will be very good. Does your camera allow you to use optical zoom while in macro mode? That's one of my tricks. I typically use between 2.8x and 3.4x so I can keep the camera further away from the coin as to permit more light to get the coin surface.

 

Oh....about the coin. Without better light, it looks to be at least a 65, maybe a 66....but I can't see the surfaces well enough.

 

OK, tried taking pics before the sun set so I could use some of the light coming in the windows. I'm MUCH happier with these pictures. Oh, and I also tried just holding the camera instead of using a tripod. That seemed to work as well. In the past, I've gotten some pretty blurry pictures that way. I think here I had enough light that they still looked good.

So... Thoughts?

 

Still too dark. If you don't have a better light, try increasing your exposure level a notch or two.

I bought my light a Home Depot for $20. It's a Hampton Bay CFL with a 27W, 6500k color temperature bulb. I love the flexibility of it. I can move and twist the head a million different ways to get the light I want. Here an example of what I can do with it. Notice how bright my fields are? That's VERY important for a grading picure. Check out RLM's pics too, he does a great job.

 

Yeah, I noticed that they looked much darker on one monitor than on the other. Of course this was after posting saying I liked them! ;-)

I'm going to keep trying!