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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lordmarcovan, post: 2605101, member: 10461&quot;]Though the <i>coins</i> are mine, I can&#039;t take credit for these pictures.&nbsp; Most of the Photoshop templates were done from the PCGS TrueView images or other professional photos I bought with the coins.&nbsp; They&#039;re not my work.&nbsp; Nor are the Photoshop templates- I have to farm that out to more skilled friends with better software.&nbsp; But I <i>am</i> working on getting better with the photography end of things.&nbsp; I <i>did</i> finally buy a decent camera setup.&nbsp; The <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/media/albums/diggers-diary-detector-finds-sorted-by-find-date.490/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/media/albums/diggers-diary-detector-finds-sorted-by-find-date.490/">metal detecting finds</a> I&#039;m starting to post in the Gallery and in the &quot;<a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/lordms-epic-treasure-hunting-game.287520/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/lordms-epic-treasure-hunting-game.287520/">Epic Treasure Hunting Game</a>&quot; on the Contests forum <i>are</i> my work, and from pretty recently.&nbsp; That represents my first &quot;baby steps&quot; up the learning curve with the new camera.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>That Perseus of Macedon piece is usually everyone&#039;s favorite, and truth be told, it&#039;s maybe mine, too, though the Aethelred penny and the 1806 gilt proof British halfpenny are in my top three or four as well.&nbsp; People are often surprised how relatively <a href="https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4166130-001/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/4166130-001/" rel="nofollow">small</a> that Macedonian drachm is.&nbsp; The Teutonic Order 1/4-thaler piece has also proven very popular and I&#039;m very happy I bought it.&nbsp; It&#039;s a neat piece, and a relatively recent purchase from this summer.&nbsp; And it only cost me $238.33 before slabbing, so in my opinion it ranks very high on the &quot;bang for the buck&quot; scale!&nbsp; (My budget is smaller than most people would think, from looking at these coins.&nbsp; I&#039;m all about getting the maximum &quot;bang for the buck&quot;, which I can do by keeping the collection small.)</p><p><br /></p><p>As to &quot;rhyme or reason&quot;, there isn&#039;t really <i>too</i> much- just a little.&nbsp; This is a &quot;freestyle&quot; collection.&nbsp; I <i>do </i>try to buy coins that are appealing on both the aesthetic <i>and</i> historical scales.&nbsp; For this particular collection, eye appeal counts a bit more than rarity or history for me, but all of that is taken into consideration.&nbsp; And I like to represent as many different places and eras as I can while still having fun exploring my options.&nbsp; As of this post, for example, the collection lacks any non-Western pieces- I&#039;d like to add a cool Japanese or Chinese or Islamic piece to the mix.&nbsp; And I need a piece of Spanish or Spanish Colonial coinage, preferably a Pillar dollar or a gold escudo of some kind.&nbsp; (I&#039;d love a gold cob, but those are a bit beyond my reach.)&nbsp; I&#039;m always looking at different stuff, and by so doing, I broaden my horizons and learn more.&nbsp; You will note that the collection tends to be heavy in stuff I&#039;ve collected the most in the past, like USA, British, and Roman Imperial coins.&nbsp; But there are always new horizons.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks.&nbsp; The 1842-D $5 technically belongs to my daughter.&nbsp; I started a collection for her when she was born in 2001, and when she proved to have little interest in being a coin collector herself, I sold it a few years ago, and put the proceeds into that one coin.&nbsp; Normally a $2K+ coin like that would be way, <i>way</i> beyond my means, but that one coin basically represents the investment I put into her entire collection I spent 12-13 years building.&nbsp; So now I have one coin to sell whenever she decides she needs college textbooks or a wedding dress or whatever, down the road.&nbsp; (She&#039;s 15 and a high school freshman now.)&nbsp; In the meantime, I get to &quot;borrow&quot; it and show it off in my Box of 20.</p><p><br /></p><p>The toned 1888 3cN proof above (PCGS PR65 CAM) upgraded an untoned but nice 1880 proof (PCGS PR64) I had in the box last year:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k173/lordmarcovan/Box%20of%2020/USA-03cN-1880-036000-frame-v2.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for looking at my stuff, y&#039;all.&nbsp; This small collection is a labor of love, so anytime it gets attention or compliments, I eat that stuff up.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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