Diving into Greece

Not my first Greek but now my oldest and only silver one. A Miletos diobol minted between 510-494 BC and weighing in at about .86 grams

 

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Congratulations, Clonecommanderavgvsvs! I'm happy for you.

On a related note, I am an absolute rank amateur at coin photography (or any kind of photography, really), but I would like to suggest a few things to make your pictures more worthy of your coin. First, put your coin on a surface with a pleasing texture. Make sure no hairs, cracks, food, or gross or dirty spots are in the background. Then, take your pictures. After that, crop them. To crop them means to cut the extraneous parts of the picture. The crop feature is available on most phones and computers, whether through Google photos, or through Apple's services. Here is what a cropped image would look like:



There are other things you can do to improve your pictures, but this would be the bare minimum to give you some images that are more worthy of the coin that is bringing you newfound happiness!

 

Thanks, will try these out!

 

I'd like to see your results; I guarantee they will be a major improvement!

 

Nah it’s a pretty ugly and cheap coin but I will try to honor your suggestions!

 

But it's still an interesting and historic coin, and it looks much better than many that I've seen.

 

You can also try adding maximum white vignette to the image.


This evens out whatever background surface you have.

 

There are a thousand phones, Most recent ones can focus more closely than this resulting in an image that has more detail. If yours does not shoot close ups on its own, there are clip ons that allow you to focus closer. However you do it, phone photos will be second rate but we should do all we can to make images better. My old Samsung does not need the add on. The 'tripod' is a short mug style shot glass. You just need to find something the height that works for your camera.

 

Doug, that is a fantastic tip! My own photography, as I mentioned, leaves *a lot* to be desired, and I have no special equipment at all.

Using your tip, I took these images from my phone resting on a glass whisky tumbler (the Glencairns break too often for me, so I don't buy them anymore!). The coin was just sitting on an ordinary piece of white printer paper.



Thessaloniki, Macedonia. Head of Athena facing right with (triple?-)crested helmet. Reverse: galloping horse. AE 18 mm. Struck after 148 BCE.

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By the way, if anyone wants to estimate what it's worth, I'd be most grateful. Don't worry...I'm not expecting much at all.

 

That’s a neat little coin! I need to get something with Athena on it someday.

 

Congrats! Welcome to the club!

It gets addicting once you begin and see your collection grow over time.