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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;SuperDave, post: 120690, member: 1892&quot;]I took a pass on it, and here&#039;s why:</p><p><br /></p><p>Even allowing for the overexposed pic, it seemed dipped and polished to me. Note the area just behind the hair, where either the polishing didn&#039;t take or the dip didn&#039;t rinse. There&#039;s similar poorly-rinsed stuff in the stars in front of the nose.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also note the cheek/chin - the lower area is pretty reflective (there&#039;s color from the shirt of the person taking the pic there) while the upper area is more mottled. </p><p><br /></p><p>Remember, I collect 1921&#039;s. I&#039;ve seen almost every single one offered online for the last 6 months (this one included), and frequently when I&#039;m in doubt I pull the pic into Photoshop and correct for photographic errors. Here&#039;s what this one looks like with a quick touchup:</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://members.arstechnica.com/x/superdave/e6_1.JPG" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>The points I mentioned are a little clearer in that pic. What it boiled down to, though, is that it just didn&#039;t_look_right to me. I&#039;ve seen a bazillion 1921&#039;s pictured, from photographers of every level of expertise, and this one was just too uncharacteristically shiny even corrected for light level.</p><p><br /></p><p>As for whizzing, I think there&#039;s enough photographic information in this pic, and the light is off-center far enough, to have shown some of the characteristic lines.</p><p><br /></p><p>Edit: For the record, I would have bought this coin if I thought it was more original. The die cracks on the reverse were plentiful enough for me to think it might have been a worthy VAM, even if I couldn&#039;t see the whole thing. It wouldn&#039;t have been the first nice VAM I got from a photograph of that quality.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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