See the only problem with doing that is that the photos look unprofessional, and very odd, and most of the time you hit the coin so you have a small chunk missing
Gotcha. We'll just send our photos to Krispy. (maybe someday I'll read photoscape. since I've been using it for 3 years)
Well, cropping coin photos would surely be an endless and tedious job to do all day. I do admit that it is something that one could do as a pretty cheap service and would benefit a lot of people's uploads/posts, just like those amazing photos we see from Todd and others. I'm sure cropping other people's coins into a nice little template would save a lot of people a lot of headache and really improve discussions and auction listings too. I personally use Photoshop, Adobe Creative Suite 3, a Professional software package. However, Photoshop Elements offers many of the same simple editing tools one needs to do this. It's relatively cheap graphics software in comparison to the Pro version and Adobe offers a free trail that you can test out yourself, just look for the "Get the trial' link on the PE link above. :thumb:
Photoscape is a great product. It can make the photo that I posted in this thread, with the black background. (The Swiss Coin) I use it as my primary editing software. Only problem is there is no option to do what Krispy did, and as neat as he did it, which could arise a problem for ancient coins, and other coins that are not even, and symmetrical all the way around.
AE one: Defaced in antiquity probably as a sign of disaprovel. "Obverse Radiate crowned head of Gallienus facing right. GALLIENUS AUG. Reverse A woman, the personification of Pax, standing left, holding in her right hand an olive branch, in her left a cornucopiae, and under her left arm, a sceptre. PAX AUG" Cant say much about my silver one, maybe Victory on rev.
Welcome....I knew you'd come around at some point Pretty soon you will want to start adding more....and more...and more... And about them being "dirty" as you put it....Well....when you are pushing 2000 years old and have spent most of that time residing in dirt, how good do you think you will look?
Inflation caused the need for a very large number of coins to be produced and for each to have less silver than earlier ones. Workmanship suffered from the rush and the look of the coins suffered from the poor alloy. There is a place in alloy (around 25%??) where silver stops looking 'silver' and starts getting granular and hard to make look right. Below that, the mint started using a much weaker alloy but coating the coins with a siver wash to make them look better (then - by now most just look like copper coins). Gallienus was in power for the period when this inflation and workmanship pressure was making the switch from poor alloy to plated. Coins before (250's) and after (Aurelian's coinage reform) tend to look better. If you check the detailed references you will see that coins were produced by more and more mints with more and more workshops as time passed. Collectors note that coins become more common as well because so many were made. Rome, and most ancient coinages, expected the coins to contain the face value of metal expected of that denomination (unlike modern times when we willingly accept silver coins made of base metal and paper money backed only by the good faith of the government). Every so often the coins were all called in and replaced with a new coinage system that tends to look better. Usually the last coins before a 'reform' tend to look scrappy compared to what they did a short while before.
[za gad nagah pasil lajaza] Mr tmoneyeagles: Here, you have my modern hebrew transliteration for your ancient coin. You must describe the inscription with H, GHLLIENVSAVG, because there isn´t A. That is the most evident historiographic manipulation on this inscription. I think legend on reverse will be PAX AVG?. You can also share meaning of words on hebrew sentence: "ç_gd kdq", and "ç_gd ng_psyl_ljç", and vocalize them. [nagah] to light, to illuminate. [pasil], idol, or verb [pasal], to engrave. [jazah], to look at, to watch. [daq], fine, refined. [gad], fortune. Another important question is the english translation, I shall you to consult them with some semitic´s teacher in San Antonio, for to have the most acurately work on your web or blog. Bloggers could help people to understand hebrew language on ancient coins, and open some window on this wall. Regards.
Very nice Travis. One day, I'll get into some ancients. They are sooooo cool. Congrats on your pick up!!!!!!!!