I've been scanning my coins for a fairly long time and I have come to the conclusion that simply because I do not own a DSLR camera, and because I've tried mounting my iPhone in such a way that it was more trouble than it should have been worth, and that photographing coins using point and shoot do not work for me, that a flatbed scanner is my desired method. This is not to say that it is the correct method of scanning my coins, it simply means that I am forced to use my scanner because I lack the necessary resources to achieve ultimate quality and lighting settings to scan my coins. However, I will tell you how I do it with Windows 10 and my HP Deskjet 3522 flatbed scanner. Each of my coins is encased in a cardboard coin holder like this: This poses a problem for my scanner when 3 of the edges are stapled together. I must either a) flatten the staples, b) remove the coin from the holder, or c) hold the coin down firmly on the scanning surface. Since it is not feasible to flatten the staples with a hammer, or to remove each coin from the holder and replace it with another one, I press firmly on the coin during scanning. This is not ideal, but because the scanner only scans the relief surface of the coin, not the entire coin surface, which may result in a blurry image, but in most cases it works for me as you can see on my website. Only attempt this if you are not fussy about your scan quality, or seeing the occasional speck of dust on the image. You can easily remove these with the stamp tool of any photo editing software. I do not scan my coins for quality, I scan it because I only want to scan the coin so I can recall it in my catalog without having to dig out all of my heavy binders. As for software, I use Windows 10 with the Scan app that I found on the Microsoft Store. This seems to work very well for me, because you can scan the image after your preview, then if the coin is a coin of the same type, you do not have to keep doing previews of each scan, you can scan each coin you have using one preview image. As for editing software, I use PhotoScape, because it crops round images. This is a godsend, if you've ever been troubled by apps that don't scan round images. I do not do any photo correction, auto-this or auto-that, I just scan, crop and save and occasionally clean up the odd dust particle. Other than that, I do not remove all of the blemishes or scratches of each coin. As for my cataloging software, I have a Joomla website, and use a free Content Construction Kit app called FlexiContent. I built what you see if you follow the link to my site on my profile page, from scratch, and have it set up to upload an image of the reverse and obverse of each coin, along with all of the coin's details that I think are necessary. I can even scan my paper money, and each of the coins is searchable by any bit of text. That's pretty much it. If you just want to catalogue your coins and you wan to be able to check it without pulling out a 25-pound binder filled with quarter and dollar coins, this is the way to do it. This method works for me. It doesn't mean it will work for you, but I encourage you to give it a try. I'd be glad to help anyone who would like help. Please just ask me! Cheers, Dan
I simply make sure the staples are nowhere near the coin and then use a paid of pliers to flatten them. Works perfectly. I also use a scanner but my preferred method is to scan them before I put them into a holder. Even in the 2x2 they are held a little from the surface which does not give the best results.
Hi sakata, that doesn't help when your coins like mine, are already encased in coin holders. I'm not about to remove 700-ish coins from their protective sleeves!
That's exactly what I am doing, slowly. I have around 5000 coins in holders. I have a five year plan to get them recataloged, pictured and reholdered.
Scanning, while convenient, is probably going to go by the wayside soon. Maybe? I think corner-to-corner sharp stills along with high-resolution video of coins, shot on a tilt table, should be the norm.
Older scanners, and older versions of Windows work better for scanning as well. The older scanners because they didn't focus is precisely on the surface of the glass the current ones do. That gave you more depth of field in the coin, being slightly above the surface of the glass, would still be in focus. Older versions of Windows because I found that more recent versions don't work well with the old scanners. Best option, if you going to use a scanner for imaging coins, is to take the coins out of the holder and put them directly on the glass.
I was hoping for better answers. My old Cannon MF3110 scans PCGS slabbed coins great but it no longer works. My newer MF4320d scans them blurry. Is there a specification I can look for? Surely there is a scanner on the market that will replace my MF3110!
My experiences with scanning coins show: -- scanners are made for flat items; a coin is not flat (actually someone else on this site said that first) -- some scanners have their focus so tightly controlled to the glass surface that coins in slabs cannot be focused on -- lack of lighting control results in less than desirable results But apparently there are scanners that can focus through slabs.
I have an Epson printer/scanner/copier and use Windows Vista. The combination works well for me. I get to set the dpi, the scanning process (photo, newspaper, etc.), the destination folder for the image, and cropping tools. I also use needle nose pliers to flatten the staples on all my 2x2s because those sharp ends can poke you and your coins. My avatar was scanned.
Hey, I like my setup, I just don't like having to start over with stuff just to stay current! . So what if I did buy my laptop back in 2008 and still have AOL as my browser, I say I don't need any more hassles in my life beyond what I get from my wife!
Like I said, I scan coins st 600 dpi and the Epson software lets me specify photograph mode and jpeg file type. I can also tell it my target folder for saving images. I do a preview first so I can crop the image before scanning, and the software lets me add a 3-digit extension that I use to mark the image as either obverse (001) or reverse (002).
I found the answer. Cheaper and newer scanners tend to use a CIS sensor, the "better" scanners use a CCD sensor. So that's the secret! If you want decent coin scans, get a scanner that uses a CCD sensor. I have ordered and Epson v370.
Stacking and rendering images is something I know nothing about. But it seems to me Being the perspective on a scanner is static. 2x2 flips are square. The fences on a scanner are square. You can set a static DPI per scan. One could use this to their advantage by making 4 scans as shown in the following manner after scanning rotate scan2 90 degrees scan3 180 degrees scan4 270 degrees stack all 4 and produce a 3-D rendering. Has anyone tried this?
Not sure how you'd expect to create 3D from those four images. A good scanner should create four identical (though rotated) images from your example, since the light and camera are head-on to the coin.
My thinking was commercially produced scanners come from the factory with the light and camera calibrated to within a +/- tolerance range as opposed to dead on. Meaning that although the perspective is static that perspective is not 90 degrees. Therefore each scan would capture an image of the coin from a slightly different perspective.
I just scanned these wit my Epson V330. I don't use it much anymore but it's nice to have around. Then I used my phone for the following image.
Many libraries have good scanners these days. Some actually have a good flatbed scanner you can set for images connected directly to a computer so you can crop out images, adjust the dpi and how many bits you want your JPEG or other images to have. I've found most good with coins and perfect for currency.
