The well-known New York merchant M.L. Marshall, apart from selling coins, issued a few interesting tokens during the Civil War years. Most remain easy to obtain, such as the fish token shown below. These photos represent my first attempts at numismatic photography using a Sony A58 camera and a desk lamp. Though the color didn't turn out exactly (the token has more of a rusted brown penny color and has the exact size of a US cent at 19mm), I'm fairly happy with the detail captured considering the relatively rudimentary tools used. I could not get the obverse to focus consistently, probably because: 1. I used crude lighting and 2. I didn't use a tripod, but handheld the camera vicariously over the fish and 3. I probably didn't use the ideal background. So I show these both for feedback and advice and also because I love the fish token that openly advertises for "rare coin" at the dawn of American numismatics. An ad for M.L. Marshall found online also follows. I can only imagine the scintillating stock he carried.
It seems like you already know what you should do differently You're off to a fine start. Learn your camera, read the manual, and practice.
Good pics but you're right, "crude lighting" and a not so great background. Get the lighting overhead if you can and for your background, I always use a leatherette type of backing, black is good.
Way better than the shots I get with my old Sony DSC-H50 . Keep up the good work !!!!! That's also one of the 1st tokens I collected . though I prefer Patriotics . I love store cards with an interesting reverse such as your M.L.Marshall .
Those pictures look pretty good to me! I'm guessing the desk lamp you used is either LED or compact fluorescent, since you are lacking the reds and oranges found in a "rusted brown penny"? Try either a single light source with a more balanced spectrum or experiment with adding an additional source with more red like an incandescent lamp. I tried using "white" LEDs for photography years ago and everything that should have been white looked purple. LEDs have improved a lot over the years though and it is possible someone makes a better white balanced LED today.
