Oregon Commemorative

Jim, you definitely need to experiment on how to get better pictures, with higher resolution, so that they can be much bigger, sharper, and better detailed. Those pictures are too small and poorly detailed to give a good evaluation.

However, based on those pictures (and my apologies for any appearance of disrespect for your dad), the coin appears to be harshly cleaned. Notice all those parallel lines in the fields of the coin? Unless they're raised (indicative of die polishing, which I doubt in this case) or they're in a plastic cover, they're caused by someone abrasively cleaning the surface of the coin. Because of this, the grade would never be higher than Net MS60 and this coin looks like it has XF details at best. The value of the coin becomes basal at best, unfortunately in that condition.

Maybe it was already in that condition before you dad got it?

My impression as I looked at this briefly yesterday was that it had been cleaned -as indicated by hairlines which are especially visible near the headdress at 10:00 and on the Indian's right thigh (on left side on the coin).

It is sometimes hard to give a unfavorable opinion of a member's coin - Prethen has given the news to you straight.

If you get some advise from the experts here on coin photography you should be able to obtain much better images of your coins with a camera than with a scanner. You just need a camera with a macro (close-up) option. Scanners do a very poor job of showing the depth or "relief" on a coin. Generally they do not do the coin justice and your sale prices will suffer. Still scanners are not very expensive these days. They are useful for scanning documents to archive as pdf files and for making copies by scanning directly to the printer.

I am interested in seeing a picture of the "ugly" Oregon commemorative that is way up in MS grade.

p.s...t360...I take no offense whatsoever at your evaluations. I used to be a very avid collector back in the 60s and early 70s. The last thing I want to do is mislead and disappoint anyone about what I have in my inventory or to whom I may sell or give a coin.

I appreciate simplicity and candor. I dont appreciate my camera and wonder what digital camera is out there that'll take better pictures. Of all the settings I have on my current digi-cam, "macro" is not one of the settings. There are, "flower" and "text." -- those get my best results for coins.


:)


Jim