I migrated to cointalk.com because of the recommendation of a friend who similarly found the haughty, overspecialized discussion evident in some of the posts on the PCGS thread to be rather annoying and unfriendly to beginning collectors. It was a wise decision. People seem a lot friendlier here (the overall tone of the discussion is much less competitive, etc.), and I find more of the threads to be accessible to me as a beginner (who knows relatively little about coins). I was reading an uber-informative thread about lustre for beginner's earlier today, but was this techno-phobic dunce able to find it again using the search function (sorry for the overused rhetorical question)? That's why I started a new thread. I apologize in advance if my questions are dumb or were answered in said thread (while I found the thread very interesting, I didn't have time to read it in its entirety). I collect early commemorative coins and have about 15 PCGS graded half dollars (most in the MS-65 to MS-66 range with a few outliers in MS-67 or MS-64). Almost all of them have what could be described as 'good lustre' (meaning that it is obvious to even me, a beginner, because the lustre on these coins is bright, brilliant, blazing. dripping [other adjectives could be inserted here] but I hope you get the idea]. A couple of them, an MS-65 Grant (sans star) and a MS-66 Columbia, SC, are oddballs, though, because the lustre on each doesn't look anything like the rest of their brethren. The Grant doesn't have any cartwheel lustre at all; it has this old-style (I think photographers call it sepia tone) light brown color that covers most of both sides of the coin. It isn't very lustrous. If I look carefully at the Columbia as I tilt it, I can see that there is a cartwheel effect on both sides, but the 'hot zones' aren't very bright and the coin and the lustre is just plain more subdued. It just doesn't seem to have the lustre deserving of a relatively high grade like a MS-66 to my beginner's eyes (I know: I shouldn't have bought it if I thought it didn't look right, but cut me a little slack for being a beginner) Strangely enough, this coin has one of the green stickers, too. All of this brings me to my (actual) questions..... 1) How can you tell the difference between a satin lustre and a coin that just has lousy lustre (either from the time it was struck [never had good lustre] or impaired lustre [it's been dipped away])? 2) Is it accurate to describe a satin lustre as being subdued or impaired? 3) Is it basically understood that a brilliant/bright lustre is more desirable to most collectors than a satin one? 4) Are the two 'oddball' coins in my collection that I described likely just cases of impaired lustre/problem coins that sneaked their way into higher grades when slabbed (because graders are not infallible)? 5) Does absence of a cartwheel mean that a coin has likely been dipped? Thanks for bearing with my long post. I appreciate any answers that more experienced collectors/dealers can provide me. Thanks again. Richard
Welcome - all are good questions and I will let someone else answer most of them. But on 4 it is possible that the toning is hiding the luster. While it is possible that a coin sneaks into higher grade I do not want to speculate on your coin. Maybe you could post pictures of them and let the experts voice there opinions. On 5 dipping can hurt the cartwheel on a coin - I have also seen some dark toned coins not reflect like I would expect. Again I am not an expert. I also know there are other cleaning methods that will remove the cartwheel effect on coins.
My thread you mentioned can be found here: http://www.cointalk.com/t58435/ As for your questions, they are very good questions, and I will try to answer them when I get time, if someone else hasn't already.
There are quite a few coins that were designed with satin luster. Perhaps most notable and easily recognizable would the Peace dollar. Many of our early commems also have a satin luster. But as to how to explain to you how to tell satin from say the luster on a Morgan - it's hard to put into words. To me it's trying to describe a color to someone who cannot see that color. I could tell you that it is smoother, softer, almost creamy looking - but does that really convey much meaning ? It would and it wouldn't, depending of who was doing the listening. So I guess the easiest way is for me to say for you to look at an MS Morgan and an MS Peace side by side and compare them. Then you will know what satin luster looks like. Subdued yes, impaired no. It is just different. It is something that has to be seen, experienced, in order for it to be understood. Most think it is, but then that's because most don't realize just how much difference there is between the types of luster. A good exercise, and one that will teach one more about luster than perhaps any other is for a person to get examples of a lot of different coins and look at them side by side. Now if you don't have these in your collection, no worries. Just go to a show or a dealer's shop and do it. Get a Morgan, a Peace dollar, an early commem, a Barber half or quarter, a Buffalo nickel, a Jeff, a Mercury dime, a Walker, a Washington quarter, and Frankie, a '64 Kennedy half, a brilliant Proof and a cameo Proof - and look at them all side by side. What you will see is differences and similarities in the type of luster that each coin has. It's an interesting and yet very informative excercise that will open the eyes in surpirse of most who actually do it. For years, most thought they knew what each coin looked like in regard to the others. But when confronted with it right in front of their eyes they see differences where they did not know there were any. And they see similarities where they always thought they were. Without seeing them, I cannot say. But I suspect it has more to do with what I have said above than anything else. Again, that depends on what type of coin it is that you are looking at. Your question, in and of itself, pretty much proves what I was saying above. Every coin that has ever been struck has luster - every single one. It doesn't matter if it's an early cent, a Morgan or a modern cameo Proof - they all have luster. But every one has a different type of luster and thus a different type of cartwheel. So you cannot look at them, judge them, and compare them to other coins of a different type and/or series. They can only be compared to coins their own type and series. But pretty much any coin that has been over-dipped will have a flat, washed out, non reflective look. This is because there is no luster, or very little, remaining on the coin.
Thank your the replies and answers to my questions. I think the main thing that I took away from them is that I need to see many coins and (more importantly) compare different types of coins in order to see different types of lustre and to be able to differentiate between them. It almost sounds like common sense I understand the difficulty of trying to explain a phenomenon like lustre with words. It just doesn't work. Am I correct in understanding that while blazing, dripping, brilliant lustre is preferred by most collectors, satin finish has its own unique brand of beauty that is appreciated by some? I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder as the saying goes. With respect to sharing pictures of my coins, I am afraid that is unlikely to ever happen given my limited technical skills (I really am a technophobe;to give you some idea, I failed in my attempt to add RAM sticks to my computer, and that is supposed to be a simple upgrade that eight year olds can easily do). My family owns a couple of Power shot cameras, but I don't even know if they are suitable for shooting coin pics. More importantly, I don't have the slightest idea what lighting conditions, what background what distance and other conditions to use. Then, I would have to figure out how to get the pictures from the camera onto my computer. There's just so much involved in getting pics onto the internet. It's really my loss, because then I could get people's opinions about my coins. And I enjoy seeing other people's photos on these threads. They really are invaluable learning aids. Thanks again for the replies and answers! I am going to read through Mr. Physics thread again because it is so chock full of useful info. Thanks for giving me the link.
You've pretty well answered your own questions. And getting coin pics on the forum is really no big deal. It only sounds complicated. Your family can show you how easy enough. Now taking pics that show what you want to show - that can be difficult. But like anything it just takes prcatice. The cameras you mention would work fine. Give a it a try.
Question about how to transfer/embed coin pictures into a post Ok. Thanks for the encouragement. I will give the picture taking a try. One question I have is about how to transfer pictures onto a post in the thread? I have obverse and reverse pictures of a coin I am thinking of buying from my dealer. She sent me pictures of it that I am trying to transfer to my post here by using the upload (paper clip) button? It says under another section called 'Additional Options'----->'Attach Files' that the two pictures have been attached. But how do I actually get them embedded onto my post for people to see the way that everyone else does? My lack of technical aptitude is definitely holding me back here
More questions about posting pics Oh. LOL. I now see the pictures embedded in my post. I guess you don't see them embedded until after you post. OK, I'm happy that I now know how to share picture files (well sort of). The only trouble is that when these pictures were emailed to me, I had the option to click on them to blow up/zoom in the images. You could really see the details of the coins. In their format here, users can only view the small (thumbnail) versions of the pictures. Not very useful. Sorry about that Any tips on how to transfer pics so that you can use the blow-up feature? Thanks for helping a newb stumbling through the proverbial dark..... For the record, my question was going to be whether you think this Lynchburg coin is an example of a satin lustre, but as I said, they are too small to really discern much
What you have to do to get the large pics is this. Open the large pic whatever site you find it on. Then Right Click on the pic, an option window will open, then click on Save Picture As. That will open another little window allowing you to chose what folder on your computer to save the file in and what name you want to use for the file. Make your choices and click on Save. This much is pretty easy. Now, before you can upload the pics to Coin Talk, you have to be sure what size they are because Coin Talk only allows pictures up to 250kb. If the pics you save are larger than that then you have to do 1 of 2 things. You can either change the file type which will reduce the size of the file somewhat - or - you have to resize the picture. Both are easy to do, but it depends on what type of file it is to begin with to which of those 2 things you need to do, and which one need to do determines how you go about doing it. But either way, both can be done by using a program that is on every computer called - Paint. Just click on Start, then programs, then click on Accessories, then click on Paint and it will open. Once Paint is open, click on File, then click on Open. This will allow you to browse the folders on your computer until you find the picture you want. Once you find it, just double click on it and it will open. Once it is open you will see what type of file it is in the top left corner of the Paint window. The type of file is determined by the extension - it will usually be something like .bmp .tiff .png or .jpg You want it to be .jpg, so if it is not .jpg, then you need to change the file type. You can do this by clciking on File, then clicking on Save As. This will open a window with a drop down box. Where it says - Save As Type - clcik on the little arrow and scroll down until you see JPEG or .JPG - click on that. Click on that, then click on Save. This will usually reduce the file size to be within the size limits that Coin Talk uses. Then all you have to do is attach the file just you alread did. If however the file type of your pic is already .jpg when you open it, and the pic is too big for Coin Talk, then you need to resize the picture. You can also do this with Paint. Again, at the top, just click on Image. Then click on Stretch/Skew. This will open another little window and you will see 4 small boxes. The top 2 will say Horizontal and Vertical. These boxes will have a size in them, usually 100%. The top one (Horizontal) will be highlighted. So if the size of your picture is say 500kb, then just hit the 4 and 9 keys, then do the same in the Vertical box, then click on OK - and the size of your picture will now be 49% of what it was before, or less than 250kb which is small enough to use on Coin Talk. Now that all may sound complicated, but it really isn't. It's quite easy if you just follow those steps.
No luck Thanks for the step-by-step instructions, Doug. I appreciate the effort. I followed them to the letter (and used the blow-up feature on them before saving them), but my pictures are still appearing in the same small size (the so-called thumbnail pictures) when I post them. I guess if I can get your email, I could send them to you and that way you could tell me if you think the coin is an example of a satin luster, etc. I'm not really sure if I should try taking pics of my coins before gaining some mastery of the art of uploading pictures to this thread (in a size that people can view and give me opinions about them). Any tips on how to get started? Is ceiling light OK? Should I zoom in and make the coin take up as much of the frame as possible (Maybe that would solve my problem of my photos appearing too small when I upload them to here). Thanks for mentoring me
Sturm, There really is an easier way. Simply host your images from another site and use HTML tags to show the image. Go to a website like photobucket.com and open an account. Upload the image from your computer to your photobucket folder. The use HTML tags in combination with the URL for your photobucket photo. When typing in CT it would look like this. The URL is the web address and will look something like this: http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/Commemoratives/YorktownCentennialMedal1881NGCMS62O.jpg You can retrieve the URL of your image on photobucket simply by mousing over and clicking where it says direct link and then pasting it in Cointalk. Hope this helps you!
Sturm - As Lehigh has explained, there's always more than one way to skin a cat. I guess I should have pointed you towards this thread to start with - How To Post Photos But to answer your original question - yes the coin has satin luster. Pretty much all of our early commems have satin luster. Sorry, meant to answer that more directly many posts ago - got sidetracked I guess. And yes, you can email me the pics. I'll send you a PM with my email.
Photobucket method of sharing THanks for the suggestion, Lehigh. I actually went to the photobucket site and registered. I was able to upload a couple of pictures of a Lynchburg Half Dollar on to their site. But I am completely lost as to how to share my photos. I wish there were a tutorial explaining to you your options with step-by-step instructions on how to do so. Regrettably, as I feared, this is yet another technology website that presupposes a certain minimum threshold of technical competence and assumes that the user knows how to do things like set up a URL or website or whatever. And I clearly do not meet that minimum threshold. Thank you again for the suggestion, though. It was worth a shot. Very frustrating and (not to get soft on you guys) well, sad. But if you don't try you don't know. And at least I tried. Thanks again
first here on cointalk hit post reply to open message box....then open new tab and go to photobucket ....while on photobucket put your mouse on the picture you want to post a drop down menu will appear look for the img code click on it to highlight it hit ctrl c on you keyboard then come back to cointalk and right click in the message box you already have open and click paste...the img code should display something like
'first here on cointalk hit post reply to open message box....then open new tab and go to photobucket ....while on photobucket put your mouse on the picture you want to post a drop down menu will appear look for the img code click on it to highlight it hit ctrl c on you keyboard then come back to cointalk and right click in the message box you already have open and click paste...the img code should display something likephotobucket yada yada...the submit reply imgae should appear' [LEFT][COLOR=#000000] Read more: [URL]http://www.cointalk.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=774232#ixzz0bJay0kRm[/URL] where and how do I open a new tab?? I put my mouse over the picture in photobucket and nothing happens. Please keep in mind that I am an idiot. I suspect there are some intermediate steps that you are leaving out. Thanks anyway, though. [/COLOR][/LEFT]
I think this thread has run its course, because it is clear that I will not be able to learn how to post pictures of my coins. With that in mind, I won't be posting to it anymore, but thanks to all that tried to lend me a helping hand. If a moderator could delete this thread, that would be great. Even without being able to share pictures of my coins, there is a lot for me to learn from reading other people's posts and seeing their pictures. Thanks again. Richard
sturm - Sorry, but I never made it to the site yesterday. Got tied up with other things. But here's the pics of your coin.
