Featured Photos that don't look like the coin

That is very interesting and funny! The moral: don't pay much attention to grades, especially grades written on a piece of paper inside a plastic slab . Just use your eyeballs, and ideally, examine the coin in person rather than in photos.

Grade range: good VF to AU. In Sheldon scale terms, 20-58. That's quite a spread.

 

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It is a big spread but I think it is more about knowing your seller. I pay attention on who I buy from and knowing their grading. Too many depend on hype words. One of my pet peeves is grading for the type. I believe a grade is a grade regardless of type.

I should add I do like descriptions of coins in hand. I enjoy that from a dealer that includes that observation, versus the ones that do not. Its also a great way to learn about the dealers POV for future purchases. I guess I am a difficult client!

 

First post here. I agree with knowing your seller. I have purchased coins with PCOS photos on Ebay that looked nothing like the coin when I received it. in particular getting greens and reds to show online when I can't duplicate it with any light source or angle, in person. Has to be photo shopping from what I can tell. Other thoughts? Thanks!

 

Welcome to CoinTalk, @lyonden

As for color, I think it is best to assume nothing regardless of whether you're looking at a coin from a major auctioneer or an eBay hobbyist seller. There are just too many variables and the seller has no control over many of them. That said-- sure, some photos are digitally enhanced to make the coin as appealing as possible.

I guess it boils down to the usual mantra... know the coin or know the seller

 

I agree, its fake.

 

Which coin are you referring to? None of the coins shown in this thread have been put forth as fake.

 

I am a former professor. In my classes I outlawed the word "it". That word is a pronoun referring to something and half the class (or more) did not know which "it" was being referred to (sometimes the speaker didn't, either).

Similarly, sometimes we have threads with five coins shown by five posters and then someone chimes in with simply "Nice coin!" But, which one? Such posts would be clear if they quoted part of the post with the coin, or addressed the poster by username: "Nice coin, @xyz"

 

"It" isn't the only problematic pronoun. Sometimes I read a sentence I've written and can't even follow my own hes and shes.

True... but in such cases I assume the "nice coin" comment is referring to the first post. Whether or not it would be better to just click Like rather than bumping the thread for a "nice coin" comment is debatable

 

I do so wish more would click like. 'Nice coin' comments are particularly bad when the 'nice' coin was posted in 2012 and the thread has been dormant since 2014.

I would go for a bunch of 'like' type buttons - 'dislike', 'welcome' and my personal favorite "I don't know but someone else might."

 

I encounter this quite often in student writing. One problem is that the writer does not know how to refer to a co-referent pronoun. I always tell my class to avoid using this construction and restructure the sentence. The same advice applies for using reflexive pronouns. They are useful but only if you know how to use them. Unfortunately, I do not have time to teach grammar as well as my course content.

One interesting writing exercise is to write in E-prime. This means writing without the use of the verb "to be" in any form.

 

E-prime? That is like eBay but with free shipping??? Hamlet would not be the same. I will continue to maintain there will no improvement as long as people reply to posts without realizing when that post was made and what was posted after it.

I helped a 5th grade teacher who had a short list of words that were not to be used in anything written for her class. These were not expletives but words worn out from overuse. While grading paragraphs on Greek Mythology (the class was reading Percy Jackson) I had to drop more than one student a letter grade for use of "nice".

 

I’m the opposite, I prefer even a “nice coin” reply then have 25 likes total and 4 actual comments. It’s a major turnoff for me.

I will purposely reply with a nice coin comment in the a new thread is buried with 1 or 2 replies just to give that user a sense of joy to get a comment then a lazy like, and that’s what it is, laziness.

 

Nice reply, @Mat. I agree and find even the simplest textual reply a form of support and positive interaction. Though, I understand that it isn't realistic, nor manageable, for everyone to post a "nice coin", so I find myself replying when the coin is in an area my collecting is focused on or fascinating enough to derail my collecting focus lol. But if I see that there are already are a few "nice coin" replies and I have no extra substance to add then I'll resort to a like.

 

Coin photos seem to be a really difficult thing to get consistently right. I remember buying two silver Greek coins from an online auction. Coin "A" looked really bright and shiny seemingly from a recent find. it was in fact very dark. Coin "B" seemed to have a grey "old collection" tone and in fact it was quite light. I have learned not to be surprised by photos and I try to concentrate on the grade and the surfaces. Bronze coins are a whole different ball game. A coin with a green patina can come to you ranging from brown to black. I am not sure if this is an effort to deceive. I have a friend who does my photos and occasionally his camera picks up colors on my coins which I cannot see. Lately I have developed a policy which in effect is.... If the coin is more than a certain value, I have to look at it with my own Mark I eyeball, or at the very least have someone whom I trust to look at it in my stead and report back to me.

 

Here are a few comparisons showing my photos versus dealer photos. For each comparison, my photo is on the top. I have no idea what most dealers are doing when it comes to photography. As others have said, I've learned that, in most cases, I should expect the coin to look better than the photo. Still, I pass on a lot of coins because the photography leaves me with too many questions.
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1. The dealer photo has too much contrast, leaving the coin looking grainy and blowing out mid tones. It has a yellow cast and the edges are getting lost in the white background.

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2. The dealer photo has super saturated color; it looks like a glow stick or maybe it's radioactive. Too much contrast leaves the coin looking grainy. Sloppy cropping leaves the edges of the coin in question.

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3. The dealer photo is a mess. Blurry areas look like they were purposely smudged with the Smudge tool in Photoshop. Sloppy cropping obscures the edges of the coin. Low resolution leaves the coin looking pixellated. The photo has a yellowish-brown cast. There's some gunk on the reverse of the coin near Mars's elbow, which on the dealer photo looks like dark toning. I took a big chance buying this coin.

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4. The dealer photo has super contrast, blowing out details in the highlights and mid tones and making the coin look mushy. This lends it a "posterized" effect, which helps to highlight the contours of figures and type, but this is nothing like how the coin looks in hand.

 

I don't have any picture examples or anything. But I just wanted to share that when I started collecting (around 6 weeks ago) and I saw ancient coins on the internet I was so in love with the details on the coin, that is what made me start collecting (and ofcourse the tons of history behind it). However when I received my first coin, oh god they actually look 100x better in real life in my own hands.

What I really like about the coins is that they are shiny, on the pictures like the ones above that shininess is not really present. Especially the bronze coins look kind of dull (like a matt color), but when I am holding my bronze coins they are actually really nice, shiny and metallic like. This is actually what made me appreciate bronze coins as much as silver ones! Anytime I buy a new coin I am excited and then when it actually arrives I stare at it for minutes how beautiful they actually are.

This hobby is really taking me in its grasp already, to the point my girlfriend is already telling me to slow down buying coins! I always tell her that this is just the beginning, so prepare

 

I encourage you to listen to your girlfriend. The coins are ~2000 years old. They will still be there when you have seen beauty in coins, shiny or dull, that you have not yet imagined.

 

On the subject of seller's coin which do not look like the coin in-hand, this is a good example. A side-portrait shilling of the young king Edward VI, son of Henry VIII.

Original Photos from HA:




This is what this coin actually looked like in-hand:


It had lovely toning and better definition of detail than on the original auction photos. I was very happy.

Of course, I have had a few which went the other way....

 

I could not refrain from adding my comments to Valentian's concerning the use, or rather misuse of some words in the English language. Specifically, words like "so" and "like'.
For example, when someone tries to highlight a situation or a feeling in phrases like: "I was like so (excited, happy, angry, etc)!...."
Another one that annoys me is the use of the word "so" to start a sentence:
"So I went to a (see a movie, coin show, etc) the other day and ...."

I am not a native english speaker, but whatever happened to proper grammar?

Please excuse the digression.

 

Another one. My photo at the top, dealer's at the bottom. The dealer photo looks nothing like the coin in hand. I won't name the dealer, but normally their photography is reasonably accurate. I'm not sure what happened here. I expected a darkly-toned coin. The dealer photo has too much red or magenta and is vastly over-sharpened. The actual coin has a yellowish cast to it.