Which Lighting Technique Do You Like Best?

Howdy, I saw your post and wanted to reply so I became a member of your fine forumn. I have always had problems dealing with coin problems and I still do. A couple of days ago I was at coin chat site and the subject dealt with proper lighting. It was stressed to use Halogen lighting. I have a few coins that were not encapsulated and were labeled as "Details". Anyway using a 45 watt Halogen light bulb I was able to easily see my coins that were wizzed or improperly cleaned. Why I even have a 1909 S I graded as MS 63 Plus which came back as a fake. for years I used a 45 watt desk lamp and a 10 power Bausch and Lomb triplet and I didn't see the problems. The 09 S was slanted due no doubt to a misaligned welding job. Again sorry for the long note but I though it might help someone. On your pictures I choose "D" as I can clearly see the details over the other photos. Did you use Halogen lighting? Been in the hobby over 60 years but I bet 99.9% of your entire membership know a heck of a lot more about coins that I ever will.

Halogens are good for Counterfeit Detection because they are pinpoint sources and under high magnification this gives the best detail resolution. Larger sources that provide more diffuse lighting reduce local contrast and this makes detection harder. I have not used halogen for a while since converting to LED but it looks like I need to do a lighting study to compare Halogen and LED for detail rendering. Unfortunately, what's good for high magnification Counterfeit Detection is not necessarily what's good for photography of the overall coin...Ray

PS: welcome to the discussion kepifred