1919-D Wheat Cent

I bought this because they are really getting on the scarce side in higher grades, but I know it has been cleaned or dipped in some manner. Anyone with a keen eye that can see what possible type of cleaning that it has had?

http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/wvabe/004-2.jpg?t=1291254571

http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/wvabe/005.jpg?t=1291254571

Thanx...

 

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I will be curious to hear from the experts as the Lincolns are one of my primary sets .

 

It's definitely been dipped, the toning looks really light, and the right side of the reverse really gives it away. If I were you I would let it tone back to brown again, it will look really nice then. Did you get a good deal on it?

 

I agree that it's been dipped.

 

Ammonia dipped ?

 

You need to set your white balance and center weight your balancing. Even your background has gone from fuchsia to purple. I have no idea what color the coin really is.

 

Ammonia sounds like it could be right. Most of the dipped coins I've seen have more of a shine to them and are darker. There are so many things you can use to tone a coin that it's hard to pinpoint exactly what was used.

 

Paid $30 for it knowing it will slowly tone back. I just hope it tones back to brown and not some funky blue or green. I thought 30 bucks was a fair price since they are hard to find in AU or better, if I find another like it I'll scarf it up too

 

The background is an old purple shirt. What is fuchsia, and center weight the balancing? I'm a rookie photo dude...

 

I know its kind of a sensitive topic, but from my experience its pretty easy to retone copper. I use newspaper or an old manila envelope, anything that has a high sulfur content because that's what tones the copper. A heat source will help too. I stick mine on top of a desk lamp and it works really good. 30 bucks isn't bad, I just looked it up and greysheet bid in au is 28.50 and it jumps quite a bit in the ms grades.

 

center weight the balancing - All late and/or descent digital cameras (at least all I have seen) balance the lighting, color, etc. internally, They can balance it to a center spot, weight it to the center of the pic, or use the entire pic to balance it. As an example, if you take a picture of a small dark object (coin?) in the center of the pic, normal balancing will make the object black and have the background look right, center weighting will probably lighten the background and show the object fair but on the dark side, and spot (if on the object) will make the object correct (or maybe even too light) and ignore the background (probably making it too light). It also does the same with colors.

 

Definately cleaned/dipped....too bad, it's a nice example otherwise.

 

These are not scarce, I see them all the time and, in fact, I had trouble selling a few nice ones I had just some months ago. Everytime I go to a show I'll see 30-40 of these in various grades. I bought a nice MS-63 example for $35 about a year ago.

For me....I wouldn't have paid more than $10 for this coin. Then again, I wouldn't have bought a cleaned coin.

 

Abe-

Shoot it on top of a white cardboard holder and I'll see if I can white-balance it for you.

 

This is why I GREATLY prefer folks use a plain old piece of copy paper for their coin backgrounds. It makes it a MILLION times easier for a numismatist to gauge the color accuracy of the picture. White balance is one of the most critical parts of photographing coins! If I can't tell if the white balance is accurate, I can't really grade the coin accurately.....and I can't tell when people use funky background colors OR black. USE WHITE PEOPLE!

 

I hope you meant to have a comma before "people".

Neutral gray is even better than white. If you shoot on a white background, most cameras will reduce the exposure to compensate, sometimes making the coin come out too dark. And if they don't, a white or nearly-white background can still make it hard to get a good white balance -- one of the channels (most likely red for incandescent light) might be blown out (clipped), which means using that value as a white point still won't give you what you want.

 

I don't ever alter the coloring of any of the coins I scan, but as everyone knows am incapable of taking a decent pic. Since the scanner uses a white background, should I try using that with the camera also ? Is that one of the critical things to do ?

 

http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/wvabe/19-D001.jpg?t=1291414724
http://i1082.photobucket.com/albums/j368/wvabe/19-D002.jpg?t=1291414724

I hope an old white box is alright...

 

Got something agaisnt Barney? I like purple.. just kidding.. He is right, it does make for a hard time telling a true color when you have nothing in the picture to go by.. the OP pics are a great example.

 

Abe,

Do these look a little closer?