Magnifiers & Other Equipment

As with coins, sometimes having a good additional set of eyes helps with paper currency.

I thought having some kind of micro-ruler or scale would help to determine how far off margins are, even though the naked eye is a pretty good judge.

Any thoughts on this:

https://www.amazon.com/Magnifier-De...cale,+led&qid=1573447229&s=arts-crafts&sr=1-3

If anybody uses something with their currency/bill shopping, please post it.

 

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I’ve thought about purchasing a loupe as well when looking at paper currency.

I did buy this https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/112554869554 Not really as a tool to help when potentially buying, but it looks really cool when that board is lit up and you can see through your notes.

 

Is it safe ? How would you use it and for what, besides just shining light through the bills ?

 

I would think that it’s just as safe as holding it up to a light. There’s three different light settings and the lowest setting is more than enough to illuminate any note. It’s more of a novelty than it is any equipment to use for helping determine quality of notes.

 

Looks cumbersome. If you need a 30x to see something, it isn't really there. A quality 5x magnifier with a light is really all anyone needs.

 

Can that thing or the magnifier I linked be used to more easily detect folds, creases, wavy paper, etc ?

 

I liked it more for the 0.5 millimeter scale underneath.

 

Not that it would help when shopping, but once I have a note if I need to measure something I use the fact that I scan mine at 300dpi, so I can just count pixels to get a distance from here to there.

The lightbox might also be handy for looking at watermarks.

 

I have one like these from my stamp collecting , much easier to carry and use. Jim

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=magnifier+with+measuring+reticle&ref=nb_sb_noss

 

A fair point, but you could just keep a small plastic scale in your wallet and use it with a more compact magnifier when needed. I keep one in my wallet along with a credit card sized magnifier for when I need a magnifier unexpectedly.

 

I didn't know such things existed, thank you! Amazon, here's more of my money

 

The light board does bring out the flaws of notes. When I get home I’ll take a photo of a note with the different light settings.

 

Here’s some quick snaps of the light board from least strongest to strongest. Hard to capture the different brightness with camera phone.

 

These might be a little better.