Just Thanking All For There Time And Paitents

Ha..I too have had these thoughts. Right now I am working in construction. Would really enjoy doing numismatics full time as a career of some sort. Just have no idea where to get stared really. I am just glad I finally got back into it sooner then later. It really does something for me being able to hold a 200+year old piece of history in my hands on the daily. That alone astonishes me.

As for looking through a loupe and your eyes hurting. I actually just noticed yesterday my eye didn't hurt as much when I squinted through my lens. Guess my eyes are "adapting" to not hurt so much as I look through my loupe more and more on the daily!

The mission of these forums is to create better collectors. There isn't a substitute for knowledge and the interactions here develop the synergies need to make us all better. As with anything there are some folks gifted with time and patience and others that aren't. I was told by my mother more than once that I needed to be patient. Learning is supposed to be fun so we need to remind ourselves of that from time-to-time. Teacher and pupil alike. Remember though the learning is an intrinsic quality. The pupil has the greatest responsibility so use all the tools available to make your learning great experience. The Search tool here is very helpful when looking up topics.

As for the squinting it can be helped in large part by having the right tools for the job. I highly recommend a microscope for variety hunting. You can do a nice job doing a rough sort using 2.5 or higher reading glasses for dates and MMs but you'll need higher magnification for doing the final sort comfortably. A few of our youngster CCF members are lucky enough to have the under 40 eyes but even then the variety hunting drives magnification. I also suggested a lighted magnifier. It replaces the reding glasses but will run you more money. Staring through a loupe for a box can be done but is very fatiguing.

Good luck on your hunts and enjoy the learning.

Coop, brand an model of your microscope please. I had a cheap China usb that worked for a week until the software took a dump.

I might use a scope to examine a coin once every two or three years, so infrequently that I keep a 10x and a 20x eye piece on either side for easy switching of the camera from one side to one side or the other for greater magnification. The scope comes with 10x, 20x 30x and 60x capabilities but I can telescope up and down anywhere over 10x up to maybe 70x. However, I find anything over 30x pointless. I have two identical scopes (got one used for $50 for a scope that was $1200 new in the late 1970s) and thought I'd use one for examining coins while the other stayed mounted with a camera but after a few years of only using the one open for examinations once or twice, I packed it away as a back up to take to shows. This way I can leave the one I have set up for photography just where it is. I've disassembled the build in lighting and use my own, bulb size varying depending on the subject but almost always 75 watt.

For viewing coins, I dangle a 10x, 14x and 20x around my neck. I use the 10x and 14x a lot. I can see everything I need to see with these two 99% of the time. Maybe 1% of he time I use the 20x.

I use my scope daily. I seem to average about 1-4 images added to my image collection and sometimes I use the scope to make images of something I'm adding. Plus when I'm going through a lot of coins, it helps me spot new stuff quicker and it is easier on the eyes.

That would be a nice thing for coin show searching.