I am a coin collector. One of the things coin collectors love to do is show their coins off to other collectors, family, friends, and anyone else we can find who is interested (or even feigns moderate
interest). At first the only way to display our prize possessions was to corner our hapless victim in a hallway or room and pull coin after coin out of our pocket and point, “Look here, look here! A proof
Morgan 1878 7 Tail Feather variety. There are only 7 feathers in the eagle’s tail, look look look. Only 750 ever minted!”
To a coin nut like me that would be an exciting coin to actually see and hold. However for the average Joe on the street a silver dollar is a silver dollar is a silver dollar and they roll their eyes and mutter “how stupid” when you tell them that you paid $950.00 for a single coin. It would even be worse if the variety or error was a small part of a small coin. But never fear, the intrepid coin collector ALWAYS carries a jeweler’s loupe for just such an emergency.
Now, no matter how small the smudge, ding, or spur, the collector will spend a half an hour teaching you how to use a jeweler’s loupe in order to properly appreciate the spectacle.
Finally our prey realizes the only way to appease our obviously weird and unhealthy fascination with small shiny objects is to say, “I see it, how very interesting.” Even though their voice is dripping with
sarcasm we buy every word of it and prance away full of self satisfaction that we brought another person into the hobby.
Numismatics Anonymous rarely works.
The coming of inexpensive camera equipment in the 1970s allowed a new level of freedom in the hobby. Collectors of even modest means could photograph their most prized and valued specimens and study the photographs of other collectors not just to turn green with envy but learn what actually constitutes certain varieties, errors, damage, etc. Some pieces are so rare that only a dozen or so people have ever looked upon it. With the high resolution of film photography the
rarest of the rare could be admired and studied in detail.
But the initial expense of the 35mm equipment was still beyond many collectors that would rather spend the money on a better grade specimen of coin. With the development of the internet the pictures that were limited to books in huge volumes could be seen by anyone with a computer. Soon after the ability to scan those images that we already had in our collections and finally the inexpensive digital camera. A collector can now play with the big boys through such
venues as Ebay, Yahoo! Auctions, and direct selling. Fantastic images of wonderful coins and with the macro mode we can get very close in for astounding detail.
But what if the detail is still too small even for this set up? What if the coin is a 1972 DDO Lincoln Cent type III that has very small doubling in the motto? In comes the age old jewelers loupe to the
rescue. In macro mode, even the most modestly priced digital camera can take very good pictures.
Notice something strange? The date looks like 200! This is called a Filled Die Error. The machinery that cranks out thousands of coins and hour day after day requires a lot of grease and sometimes that grease fills in portions of the die that strikes the coins.
All I did was kick up the zoom level on the camera and zoom through the loupe. At different angles the “1″ in 2001 can be faintly seen. And to show that this rig is inexpensive here is the setup at my
dining room table.
Notice the camera is missing. I had to use something to take the picture.
Well, there it is, a piece of history helping out the technology of today. Hope you like this tip and it helps you in your photography.
Technorati Tags: Photography, Coins, Digital, Loupe, Jewelers, Numismatics, Auctions, Ebay, Yahoo
Technorati Tags: Photography, Coins, Digital, Loupe, Jewelers, Numismatics, Auctions, Ebay, Yahoo
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