Whats Wrong With These Pictures?

The only thing "wrong" with your pictures is that the White Balance is off, throwing the color off.

The ugly truth about good coin photography is that cameras see and emphasize things the eye doesn't. A 64 in-hand is a 62 in the ruthless eye of a good lens, and that's the end of it. Your focus is sharp, your lighting isn't bad, the luster of the coin is obvious and you've done as well (with the minor exception of the White Balance) as you really need to do with the coin.

The difference between a "good" coin photographer and a "great" coin photographer (I put myself in the first category) is twofold: First, the great shooters tend to shoot great coins. Second, the great shooters can, with their tools, practice what amounts to deception - depicting the coin as it looks in-hand, and not as it looks in the harsh reality of digital pixels.

There's something to be said for poor coin pics.

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A 64 in-hand is a 62 in the ruthless eye of a good lens, and that's the end of it.

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Good macro lenses are unkind to coins, particularly higher-grade silver. As an example, here's a shot taken with a Nikon D70s and the 60mm macro Nikkor. The result almost looks almost whizzed in places with flat fields--starkly different from the actual coin in hand.

People and coins are both flattered by diffused light, so bounce the light source off something or through something. A white piece of paper, milk bottle, tissue, the ceiling, anything as long as it's white. There's some interesting examples of milk bottle shots on the forum somewhere.

Thanks Dave Thats great I'll give it a try.