Stumbled across the image linked below of an 1802 half eagle, cert. no. 06630159, on PCGS website. Why would they put such an image on their website? Funny thing is there is an ad promoting TrueView photos directly below the image. And yes, I know it's an anomaly and likely a miscommunication that it got posted. Phil Arnold is a world-class coin photographer. Cal Link: http://www.pcgs.com/cert/ 06630159
Urk. I suspect this coin is long-held with the current owner, and the image predates Phil. He wouldn't let something like this leave the room.
Apparently the secure holder now have real trueviews, but in the early days they just took a quick and dirty shot of them, and they are not real trueview pictures.
That wasn't so much a quick and dirty shot. Before PCGS provided free TrueViews with all Secure submissions they took a "thumbnail" shot of the coin with a special camera that made it easy to identify individual characteristics of each coin. These photos weren't meant to be used for posting or showing off coins.
I was also thinking it was a "Secure Plus™" image, but the holder type says "standard" rather than "secure." Even so, this falls woefully short of the quality of the typical early Secure Plus™ image.
Here is the Secure plus photo and the Trueview of a coin I used to own. The style looks very similar to the OP's photo
Possibly some automated imaging system that they used to have, perhaps part of a security or tracking system. In the receiving room, coin may have been placed in the imager as soon as it was unboxed. Later, someone had the idea to put the pics online in the web certification verification section. Just guessing. Cal
Switching secure photos to trueviews was one of the best decisions they have ever made. That beauty deserves better
The "Image" is from PCGS's scanner which is used to reference coins previously submitted. The quality is poor to the human eye but quite useful to the computerized scanner that PCGS uses. It is NOT a trueview nor is it even a photograph. Below is one of the Secure plus scans: Until the coin was upgraded and trueviewed, this is the image which appeared on the Cert Verification page.
You can't tell luster from the photo or scan or whatever that is. Robec already showed an example of one of those vs a real picture demonstrating that
You know, I can see some solid basis for precise coin identification in both that image and the repetitive, duplicable control over imaging technique a scanner can offer. Interesting. Very interesting.
