So I thought I'd try my little Google Gemini AI buddy and see what it could do about removing the pesky white NGC prongs from the image of this Peace dollar. I think it did a mostly good job overall. Interestingly, the source image was only 500x500 but the AI bot gave me a 1024x1024 result. That would certainly help if I was going to use this image, as my personal standard for my collection is 800x800. I was worried about upsizing the 500x500 original and losing detail. The AI output does seem to have been pretty faithful to the original, reproducing every little mark on the coin. My major complaint is that it washed out the light gold toning. This is not yet a coin I own, nor is it in hand, so I can't really judge which image is closer to reality. I was just playing around. Before: original dealer image, 500x500 After: Google Gemini, 1024x1024
I know you are anti-prong in your images but I don't find them nearly as offensive. I picked the first one because I believe it will more truly match what the coin looks like when it arrives.
Probably right. I couldn't use the AI image because the color is so obviously inaccurate. But had it reproduced the color of the toning accurately, I'd have been tempted to use it. Again, not that I necessarily own this coin yet. Just tinkering. The AI removed the prongs so tidily and quickly that I will probably play with it some more to produce prong-free pictures. At least as long as it doesn't mess up the color or the tiny details on the coin.
Did AI add the reeded edge? I see that it is not visible in the first image. It is pretty cool how clean the generated image is.
Have to say, while getting the prongs removed is a nice concept, I wouldn't trust AI not to make further, unasked-for alterations, which it seems it did in this case. So I prefer the dealer photo as the unaltered original. Plus it shows the coin's luster so much better.
As AI is designed to do, it drew from a large sample of Peace dollar photos to create yours. There is quite a bit of activity on the cheek and left obverse field that I don't see on the original. I think it probably pulled from similar coins to upscale your picture - which is part of the reason the color changed.
Yeah, so probably not something to start using, then. Was just an experiment, as I mentioned. There are more surgical ways of digitally excising those prongs. Which really aren’t so bad in this particular example. On large coins they tend to be less intrusive. But I’ve seen them half-swallow a gold dollar. Reckon I’ll just live with ‘em. IF the coin even becomes mine (gotta go check now…)
Although the lighting angle makes the coin look so different, the AI result actually looks quite accurate to me, with a singular exception. Artie smoothed the rim between E & R in LIBERTY.
I think it was a solid result. It's not perfect, but many of the hits/marks are still in the same spots (although there are some extras added and some taken away). Also, I am not convinced that the original actually has gold toning; I believe that might just be a reflection or artifact of the photography style.
Well I voted for dealer image which shows the luster. And I like the strike on that coin - hope you get it. I went and tried it with my 1820 satiny brown MS64 coin. It actually made the die cracks not as thick as the are and it made it look like a nice RB coin. Even the PCGS true view pictures suck.
Well, it looks like that coin is about to become mine, as part of a five-coin swap deal with NEN. So soon I should be able to see what it looks like in hand. It is an NGC MS66, BTW. I will not be using the experimental AI-generated image above. That was just a whim.
AI-slop is taking over the world, we don’t need it creating made-up coin images too. I’m not anti-AI. I am anti-use of AI for all things - even things it is has no business being used for.
At least a decade ago, @robec was using photoshop to remove the prongs from pictures. I'm not proficient in photoshop, but maybe he could share what he does.
Since you asked which looks better, I'll say the Gemini image. No prongs, better color, better dynamic range management, even if at the expense of luster rendering. Had you asked which is a better picture of that coin, the first one is. I can tell it's lustrous and it appears that junk has been added to the Gemini picture that doesn't belong. As for AI being a tool for removing prongs. It seems to do quite well. The technical result is the same as using Photoshop. Assumed image detail replaces actual image detail. To produce as better picture of that coin, you could blend the original and AI pictures by masking in only the rim to the original. You could also provide explicit instructions to Gemini that no changes are to be made to the image content except for on the rim of the coin. With some experimenting, you should be able to either manually or automatically exclude everything that's not the rim from being adjusted by Gemini. The result should be a better picture of that coin, but not a better representation of that coin. Those are two different things. Your coin provides a good example of the difference, in that a better representation would have preserved the rim hit above the R. You could further instruct Gemini to only change pixels that have been identified as being affected by the prongs, which includes the prongs themselves as well as shadows from the prongs. Better picture in general, better picture of a particular coin, better representation of a particular coin -- three different goals, three different approaches.
