Better Equipment for Error Spotting

I do a two step. I use a lighted magnifying loop to do a sort. After that, I will run select dates/mms under my AmScope microscope. Like you, I never found the digitized images very useful. That said, it was with older technology a decade or more ago. As noted, decent optics are available at a fair price these days. It helps extend the hobby.

Regarding photography, you can play around with simple setups and lighting tips. It can be an enjoyable endeavor…and a frustrating one. Patience is needed.

But keep it fun either way.

 

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I'm going against the grain here and offering my opinion on getting an expensive scope. I bought this beast for vamming my Morgans and it's fantastic. You've still got to be mindful of what you're looking for though. Particular pickups are relatively easy to spot, but if you don't know what you're looking for and are zoomed way in, you aren't going to notice anything worthwhile.

This particular scope can take great pictures but the lighting on it leaves me wanting. Technically, I believe it's a scope designed for soldering very small things, but it's great at coins, too. Not the soldering part... I haven't tried that yet.

It's an ELIKLIV EM4K-AF with an 8" screen. Capable of taking whole-coin shots up up to an 8 Reales... at least that's the biggest I've got so far. Morgans also fall into that size. I'll see if I can get some examples loaded up later as to the actual images, but here's the scope. Comes with a remote, too, so when you take pictures it doesn't shake the unit and make them blurry.

 

For coins have you tried to diffuse the lights. I use Gnip Gnop balls taped over my LED's it dulls a bit of the brightness. Looking forward to some photos.

 

Just joined not sure how add picture of a 1927 penny missing bottom half of in God we trust.
Is a line that goes around the circumference which creates an edge. Visible part of in God we trust is lower not worn. No sign or indication lower half was ever there. Which if from wear or screw bank as a dealer said you'd see something.

 

Slow down I answered your post in post your Lincolns.
If you want different people to respond become a member and post it in the Errors section.
Welcome to CT.

 

I've got to fiddle with some homemade concoctions for trying to diffuse the ring light that surrounds the camera. It's going to be a nightmare because of how small some coins are vs how large others are. But I'll get to it in the near future and see what I've got to adjust for it to simply dim the lights. Even on the lowest light setting on a fantastic looking coin, it white-washes it and puts glare out on the reflective portions of it. You've seen a bunch of my pictures at this point so I'm sure you know what I'm talking about lol!

 

You could easily use a square piece of tissue paper.
Lets, see some of your photos with that newfangled machine you got there.
You may need to get more light on the coin.

 

I'll mildly disagree. Poking around with a scope can lead to discovering something, or confirming something, as long as you don't start thinking it's some massively valuable new variety. These images of my Canada 1948 $1 allowed me to discover a 4/4/4 "micro" variety. It's not intrinsically valuable, but it led to identifying the three reverse dies used for those famous coins. And once you see that notch in the upper corner of the 4, it's easy to pick out in auction images, and kinda visible at 10x.

 

Nice photos!

 

I used to be somewhat of a photographer with a 35mm digital camera when I was running and ripping as a younger lad. A young lass suggested I tape a piece of paper over the flash to tone down the flash to prevent washed out photos. You might guess the the purpose of my ill gotten photos. It was 100% homemade private porn. I was not always just pillar of salt of the community. All willing participants I might add, and sometimes help clicked the camera. Glory days!

 

So, did you have your own darkroom (FOR DEVELOPING FILM), or did you provide occasional thrills to the folks running the machine at the drugstore?

 

Nah.......not that long ago........circa later 2002-2010. lol.........good times. I still have the digital media on a SD media chip that my now new to me wife of 10 years will never find unless I die.

 

I use 5x and 10x loupes for error hunting. When I have tons of coins and varieties I’m hunting for but am not overly familiar with, I use my Bausch and Lomb Stereozoom 7. I have an attachment that lets me put my phone up to the eyepiece and snap images. Some of those images are below.

 

I only use a loupe today. Gave up looking for insignificant anomalies. If you can't see it with a loupe then what good is it? Any errors or varieties that small? I think not.

 

I highly recommend getting a B&L stereo microscope for variety searching. It was the single biggest factor in getting me interested in varieties when I got my first one 35 years ago. They are pretty cheap these days. Install a ringlight and you'll get excellent illumination for searching.

 

That is a mac daddy for sure! I'm guessing that set you back a few hundred dollars. My taller stand is scheduled to arrive today for my cheap Hayve, just hope the longer rod is compatible with the scope camera. I don't often use it for photos, so when I do I have to relearn the button functions all over again. Your remote camera button is a really nice feature that I don't have, stability means a lot less attempts for a clean shot.

 

It definitely wasn't cheap! But it's exactly what I wanted for vamming and for seeing the smallest of details at times. Just being able to have the whole coin in view at once makes a huge difference compared to my previous $20 scope lol

 

Sorry for the delay, been busy with all sorts of stuff recently. I believe mostly everyone here has seen these before, but just to put up some examples of whole-coin shots (and one up close of the lathe lines in the shield) here's some moderate capabilities of my scope. Granted, this is toned down to be able to load onto this site. After cropping, I still had to reduce the file size by about 75% to be able to upload it.

 

Yup. Got my taller stand in yesterday. Dissapointed. It's not going to help me take better photos of an entire coin with my cheap scope. Luckily, it only cost me about 15 bucks. Live and learn. Cheap lessons are okay though. Back to the drawing board!

 

I love the proof 1903 Centavo.