Got Loupe?

I've bought my magnifying glasses and loupes (regular and lighted; big and little; low-power and high-power) at coin shows and from the guys with the "misc tables" at gun shows. Their stuff is cheap and has no pedigree, but there's no shipping and you can try the stuff out right there at the table and see if it works well enough for the price. All my pieces are all cheap but as far as I can tell they work 80% as well as the high-class, far more costly pieces I've tried out. But - I don't buy just anything at the shows. As I said above - I try it out first. The local coin shops have some stuff too, but there's a better assortment at the shows.

I'd suggest what John posted, I have something similar (a bit more fancy), only cost me about $15 at a jewelry shop. They can be 'got' for fairly cheap, <$10 and there is only small differences IMO.

Sean

My aging eyes have finally forced my hand. While at the coin show this past weekend, I had to buy a new loupe (HE Harris 10X) just so I could buy some coins and know that I was getting what I thought I was getting.

I have this one left over from back when I was using film. http://www.adorama.com/PK1961.html?...yk4Aod5EkARQ
Its about $20 but really easy to use you can just leave the coin on the table and put it down right on top of it smaller coins fit inside the clear plastic and this lets light in from the sides. it doesn't work so well this way for dollars there you have to either hold it above it or let the loupe touch the coin.

I first use a lighted 2X magnifing glass, then a bausch and lomb 10X for detail if I see something and then a USB 150X microscope to verify and take pictures to post on the forum.