If you've seen my photos before, you know that my camera intensifies any and EVERY hairline it seems. All that said, here is a lustrous seated quarter that I pulled from a problem free ANACS slab into my type set. It appears to be struck slightly off center? This coin is very attractive in hand, and has plenty of luster, and some nice orange rim toning. What would you grade it? And what do you think ANACS gave it?
The coin definitely has hairlines, but they don't look nearly as bad in hand as they do in my photos. ANACS actually gave this an AU-50 which I thought was really conservative considering the amount of remaining luster. This coin has considerably more luster than my 1891 PCGS AU-55 seated quarter. I guess the coin just took a hit from the hairlines. Oh well, it looks beautiful in my type set.
Yes, a great type set coin. Nice going. I like XF and AU for the older coins. Plenty of detail but at a fraction of the MS prices. Mine is an 1861 AU-58.
I was gonna say AU-53. And, not that you asked, but I think it's your lighting that emphasizes the hairlines, not the camera.
I agree. FWIW, a neat trick is to move the light "in line" with the hairlines rather than perpendicular and presto the hairlines will appear less obtrusive. In the case of the OP's first photo, it was taken with the light at roughly 12:30, which makes the east-west hairlines appear strongly in the photo. If the light were moved to roughly 4 o'clock, the hairlines will appear less obvious in the resulting photos (unless of course, you have north-south hairlines too). Hope this helps...Mike
Never thought of that. Good point. OH - and nice coin. I would like to see it in hand versus the picture.
I personally would have said AU-55, but it probably looks just different enough in hand that it got the downgrade.
Thanks for the comments guys, and thanks for the lighting advice. I'm definitely a "newbie" photographer, and my main light source is just your basic run-of-the-mill 60 watt incadescent bulb. Maybe I should do some research into coin photography, as I'm sure there are posts on that topic. My camera has phenomonal detail. I usually shrink the picture down by at least 50% before posting, even on my high res monitor. Of course the downside is that it brings out every little flaw, even ones I couldn't see under a loupe! It's great for varieties and such.
