Sorting my 70 year accumulation

I have found that coins will often photo well on a regular sheet of white copy paper.

 

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That works too. I like black because I have a black background on my coin photos and if there not perfectly round and I crop them, I don’t have to edit the color for the final shot.

 

Oh yes black gives a nice contrast. I was just saying if you aren't completely
set up, you can go economical and try white paper, it often shows the coin detail
surprisingly well. You wouldn't think it would show up against the white. But it does.

 

I have a flip phone that is very clumsy to use for photos.

I have been using a Leuchtturm variable magnifier on a stand with built in light. Attached is one of the near mint 55 S I found in my hoard.

 

One problem with these digital microscopic cameras is that they automatically try to "fix" the color balance for you.

From the shots of your workbench I can see that your background is actually a neutral gray. However, when you take a picture with so much red in it, the adjustment says "Hmmm, too red, let's shift it towards the other end". The result is a washed out red and a gray background that is now way too blue.

This is a small tweak to shift the background back towards gray, bringing the red of the coin back with it.

My digital magnifier does the same thing, unfortunately.

 

On a side note looks like you're 75 or so. Even more valuable than some of those coins would've been your keeping a baseball card collection from ~1952 or so.

 

I am one of those that used baseball cards as noise makers in the bicycle spokes. My son has a collection that includes most of the Houston Colt 45's. But his main collection didn't start until the early 80's.

 

Inspector43. You seem to have a fine collection of U.S. Coins. Maybe it's time to collect some from Alien lands. Or, would that take another 70 years ???

 

Wow, that would be a mission. I have a large collection of Canadians that is not organized at all. I might save that for another life.

 

I am taking the advice and will try to set something up. Meanwhile, here is another 1955 S that I came across. I modified my technique a little but still need some work. This one is a little darker toned than mint luster.

 

Until I started this task I hadn't realized how much stuff I had accumulated.

After I got hooked I went full blast; in my hometown there were Mom & Pop stores everywhere. I knew the owners of all those close to me. This was in the late 40's and all through the 50's. I walked to and from school. On the way home I would stop at some of the stores and look through their change. They knew me and didn't even look up. I would open the register and look through the change. Swap out what I wanted and move on.

On Saturday mornings I would go to one of the local banks. The tellers had to count and roll all their change by hand. I would sit on the floor of the vault and do it for them. Watch for coins and swap them. I know it sounds strange, but back then there was more trust and I was well known.

There were other places where high volumes of change were used. One was the Amusement Part. I helped them close quite often and rolled change for them.

The definition of 'the good old days'.

 

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Ah, the good old days. I wish I had a time machine.

 

I always felt like I was born in the wrong era, you just confirmed it.

 

Have you looked up a program called photoscape? It’s free software from softonic. It’s pretty good and easy to use for editing photos. I’d send you a link but my phone is in German and keeps trying to pull up the German versions.

 

My latest finds. A pair of 1928 S, one Large S and one Small S.

 

Thanks. That sounds interesting.

 

Inspector43. Seeing your story, it's really like you've got coins in your veins. It's not for me to say what you should collect or not collect. Maybe I was thinking of my own numismatic situation. Although there are some notable exceptions, despite living in England, U.K., I tend to avoid collecting British coins, in general. And you might wonder why. Well, I see them, and purchase with them every day, so, to me, they somehow seem less "exotic". Of course, who is to say what is right or wrong to collect, and there are probably as many different collections as there are collectors in the world. They do say that variety is the spice of life !

 

Maybe you can ask someone with a good video camera to record highlights of the 'unboxing' of your collection along with relevant commentary - that would make for a valuable YouTube video, something of interest to novice and veteran collectors alike - much better than the bogus YT vids mentioned in a previous post today

 

Well, I do have 13 grandchildren and I may be able to get them interested in such a project. Thanks for the thought.