How Do You Make It . . . Accurate?

This took about a 1 minute in the free program Picasa2. I clicked "Basic Fixes," a 1 click color & lighting fix, & then under "Tuning," I clicked the Wand under "Neutral Color Picker."

Here's the link:

http://picasa.google.com/

You can also adjust the lighting & contrast in Picasa.

Yea, the scratch on the thigh makes me want to cry.

These photos are the first time I've had the coin out of the original glued 2x2 I got from the dealer. The 2x2 had a very thin plastic lining for the coin, and even when I first looked at it in the dealer's store, it was scuffed and damaged in a few spots (around lettering in two spots, but you had to look really close). Still, it seemed that the inside was very intact, and it was within my budget. However, it was my first coin ever, and I didn't know what really to look for in terms of scratches or not scratches or whatever. Although I had looked at all the things I pointed out in my little red/blue line diagram from the first time I considered buying it, it wasn't until I actually took the quarter out of the plastic that I actually noticed the scratch on the thigh. It was very saddening. My only other SLQs aren't in good enough shape to have anything there, so I originally assumed it was just part of the folds of her dress or something (*smacks forehad*). Learning experience !

I have stared at that coin so many times in the 2x2 wondering what it would look like out in the open, so this camera was an excuse - I put on a glove and carefully cut around the furthest part of the 2x2 so I couldn't come close to the actual coin. Then I just turned the 2x2 slightly and the top "peel" of the plastic just came up on it's own, allowing me to grabe the coin by the edges with my gloved fingertips.

I looked hard at the TEAR in the thigh and was like, OMG, did I just do that accidentally? Then I looked at the previous pictures and it was there, just obscured by the plastic, or the lighting or both. It just looks much shorter and less obvious, at least to my untrained eye, in the original photos I posted. And of course, perhaps I overpaid for the coin, but I don't worry about that; I had the money and I spent it on something I've enjoyed and will enjoy in the future, and I can't expect to make perfect buying decisions when I know so little about coins. I'm happy with the coin, to be sure.

Anyways, even though the scratch was already there, it got me to thinking about setting it down very carefully, what I use for a base (set the coin on, how hard/scratchy is it), etc. For these photos, I was using as a caligraphy practice board, which is not that hard and very smooth. Still, if the relief is high enough that the rim is not as deep as Liberty's thigh, it is always a possibility that setting it down on something too hard to photograph it could cause a scratch like that.

And yes, I really do love SLQs (both obverse and reverse, and especially the Type 1 - seems more dramatic to me) from my very first novice sighting of one, I was just drawn to it. There are other very very beautiful coins, but that one I just like a lot.