My earlier thread about the 140X bid Morgan Dollar got me to thinking about the quality of coin photos that coin dealers and auctioneers use. I collect rainbow toned coins and the quality of the photo is of supreme importance, yet I find dealer after dealer with absolutely terrible photos on their websites. The large auction houses are just as bad. Although the quality of Heritage's photo's have improved over the last two years, they still are far from good IMO. Has anyone ever purchased or won a coin at auction that absolutely blew them away when the received the coin in the mail. If you have, here is your chance to show your good fortune to the rest of the numismatic community. Please post a coin that looks much better than the seller's photo. Post both the seller's photo and your own to show the comparison and share any other comments about the coin transaction. I will start with a coin that was recently auctioned by Anaconda Rare Coins in the Heritage Signature Sale. The coin is a Morgan Dollar 1887 NGC MS65 with textile toning. I have always wanted a textile toned Morgan and this one seemed pretty cheap even though it was a little ugly with the army green toning. I placed a bid of 2X wholesale and won the coin. Imagine my surprise when I opened the envelope and the most beautiful vibrant powder blue textile toned Morgan appeared in front of me. I ran to my computer and compared it with the photo and broke out into uncontrollable laughter. A good coin photo makes all the difference.
Around here we are lucky if: The coin is more than 2% of the photo. The photo is larger than a postage stamp. The coin is even remotely in focus. The photo was taken at an angle less than 135 degrees to the coin. Illumination is anything other than a flash that washes out all detail. The coin was removed from the flip, Air-Tite, 2x2, etc.
Great post, I just recently got into coin collecting but I've also enjoy photography as a hobby. I've never tried photographing coins before so I broke out the camera and tried it. Here are the original eBay photos and the photos I just finished taking. eBay Picture View attachment 109810 My Picture View attachment 109811 I was able to get this Morgan for $340 and I think the under value price comes from the poor original picture.
Here are a couple Indians I won on ebay. The seller obviously used a scanner for the photos. These are proof-like and blazing red with tons of luster. Even my photos do not properly capture the luster. ebay photo: View attachment 110327 my photo: View attachment 110324 ebay photo 2: View attachment 110325 my photo 2: View attachment 110326
This is a different spin on the topic at hand. I have been building a large grading/study set using the 1909VDB as my coin of choice. I recently bought (2) 67RD coins from Heritage 1 month apart. It is important to add that I am very careful to keep my lighting and camera settings the same for RD coins in order to have consistent images for use in comparisons. I also sized all the images the same for a fair comparison. The first coin I paid more than the second coin and was disappointed that the coin that arrived is probably close to a Red Brown designation if resubmitted. The second coin I won at opening bid - it turned out to be a much nicer coin than depicted dripping with blazing luster. It is apparent to me that Heritage is not careful with their lighting and settings at least not with High Grade copper and their images tend to hide nicks and dings where mine may actually exaggerate them. You can click on the images for full resolution. Coin#1 January 2011 Heritage Images My imgages - notice the strong color difference - bordering deceptive? Coin #2 February 2011 Heritage Images My images - notice the strong color difference again - however this was to my benefit since the coin has blazing luster.
when shooting a coin, it is always best to use a diffuser if you MUST use fill flash. If you do not own a diffuser, use a piece of copy paper and cover your flash aiming paper ends to the sides of your camera and not up and down. . You want your paper to fold over your flash horizontally. The best way is to use natural lighting and just slow down your film speed. I too have gotten coins and have been shocked when they arrive . I adore those purchases.
It's nice we can still learn from Lehigh although he was banned and is featured on "Best of CoinTalk"?
I tend to disagree with this statement. Especially regarding when imaging Mint State Uncirculated Copper Coins. I think it is very important to portray/image high grade coins with the attributes that gave them the high grade. Diffusing light when shooting coins tends to blend little knicks and dings and mutes the reflectivity of a lusterous coin. While it will produce a pleasing image, I do not like how diffusing can make a bright coin dull and hide/blend imperfections On the other hand - the converse..... It can be said that NOT diffusing the light will exaggerate those nicks and dings and it causes "hot spots" of overexposure on the most reflective areas to the lens. When capturing a coin in an image, in my opinion, this is where art factors in. It is up to the person who is taking the picture to decide how they want the coin best represented. Do we want an artsy image? or do we want an image that can be interpreted technically? Or is it best to have a balance? I think it should depend on what the image will be used for or how the owner wants the coin represented. I prefer to find a balance of luminosity and crisp contrast of details and devices. I find that using a fixed halogen flood centered and 2 smaller incandescent bulbs (at 10 & 2) to highlight and remove shadows, works best for me as shown in the Heritage comparison examples above. It is important to add, that while one person might like a certain image type of their coin another might like something different. There is no right or wrong way other than color. Images should always be white balanced for color accuracy.
