I'm trying to learn how to judge grades on my own, but until I'm there any help is appreciated! Don't so much care about the value (although it will be nice to know), I'm looking more to know the estimated rade. I'm also trying to learn the best way to take clear close-up pictures of coins, and these are about the best I could do with the camera I had available, so please try not to let poor picture quality affect it. The 4 pictures are the same coin (2 with flash on, 2 with flash off, wasn't sure which gave the most accurate picture)
Not possible to grade from these pictures. You have a good camera (DSC-L1) take the coin out of the 2x2 place on black surface on ledge or near a window in full daylight. If you have a tripod use it. If not turn a high backed chair around and use the back to steady the camera. Put the camera in Macro mode and have it about 2 ft from the coin when you take the shot. It should give you a fairly good picture
I'm sorry I tried going outside and getting better daylight pictures but none even came through as clearly as the posted ones did. My 4 year old 3 megapixel digital camera just wasn't built for these kind of close-ups. I'm not selling the coin or anything so the accuracy of any statements isn't going to come back and bite anyone in the butt. Just give me a best guess. Based on compartitives with coins I see on the net I'm guessing it's close to VF-35, but I have no experiences doing these.
Get a tripod. My camera is older than yours - the tripod made a world of difference in the quality of my pictures. Plus getting them the correct distance from the lens. Then it will take several hours of playing with it to get it right. See the ones I just posted in this link. Mine still are not as good as others, but I think they are passable.
my camera isn't worth the value of a tripod, if I buy a tripod I need to buy a camera, which I just can't justify doing solely for this purpose right now. just take a grade guess plus or minus 10 levels if you have to.
if you do not want to buy a new camera, a scanner works about the same. thats how i take pictures of all my coins is with a scanner. it does pretty good too. and alot easier and faster.:kewl:
Both coins appear to be Very Fine or a little nicer but can't be more precise due to poor quality of photos.