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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;HawkeEye, post: 3586252, member: 86305&quot;]Of all the coins we collect, grading the Stone Mountain Half has proven to be the most difficult.&nbsp; A coin with features designed to intentionally be somewhat soft and with no flat field can be difficult.&nbsp; The stars can be an indicator of the completeness of the strike for MS coins, and an indicator of wear for circulated coins.&nbsp; But locating all 35 stars has been a challenge for most coins because rarely is the strike complete.</p><p><br /></p><p>To solve this dilemma we have developed a template we can electronically overlay on the large coin images to find traces of the stars.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is a Mint State example with the stars easily located.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]957659[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>But down at grade VG08 and below this becomes quite a challenge!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]957660[/ATTACH] </p><p>So our little overlay trick has really helped.&nbsp; The stars are often more visible with high quality images than with the coin under magnification because the actual location of the stars can be quite a challenge once they begin to fade.</p><p><br /></p><p>A good tool that may apply to other coins if they have soft features.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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