How To Scan A Coin's Edge

I've always wondered why coin edges are so poorly documented, especially when they're so important in determining authenticity. I'm interested in recording edge inscriptions but the best method seems to still be taking pictures. Here's one of my photos for the Numista catalog:


And here's a photo without colour balance issues:


But I can't imagine a way to put an edge through a scanner - anything that's even a tiny distance above the scanning surface will be blurred out, so wouldn't you only get scans of a very tiny portion of the edge?

Heres what a flash light reflector can do. Please note the photo is edited the medal face is surrounded by two separate photos of the two different edges that can be found on this particular medal

Here's my first attempt at using a flashlight reflector. It's curious that this side came out so much better than the obverse. I guess there's a slight difference in diameter between obverse and reverse that so that the edge is not exactly perpendicular.

Henry look for a cheap incandescent( LEDs have the wrong shaped reflector) battery powered torch( american: Flashlight). Remove the reflector. You place the coin inside the reflector to photograph it then you need to do some editing. jgenns first attempt is impressive! all that needs to be done now is to edit the picture. I photograph the face and edges separately the reason being is its not always possible to get the edge adequately exposed with out over exposing the face of the coin. So the face is photographed at one exposure the edge at another I then crop out the edge Ring, flip it horizontally so its no longer mirror image and then I paste it around the picture of the face of the coin.

Great technique!