1921 D Morgan Dollar

Unfortunately, it's a physical impossibility to grade from scans of such little detail. 1921-D's are weakly struck, and I can't see enough to catch the little details that define a weakly-struck MS coin.

Ralph, if you can, set your scanner for a larger image, say 768x1024 pixels (maybe 75 to 100 kb compressed = low resolution) and post it as a larger image. Also, set it for color instead of black and white (if it isn't already set for color; it's often hard to tell). We can at least get a little more detail even if we can't get the full luster. But as Dave said, '21 Morgans are tough to image, espcially with scanners because of their weak strikes.

Good luck finding the "right" camera at the right price. Go to the Photography section and you'll find us arguing about cameras almost as much as we argue about Morgan grades.

Fred

Check out the features from the scanner, if you can. Chances are it has a resolution setting, and the ability to crop the area which it doesn't need to scan. Between those two settings, it's very likely that you can get a *huge* pic of a scanned coin, in excruciating detail.

If you can scan the coin at, at least, 600dpi, you can come up with a picture which is more than enough for technical grading. What a scanner will not show is luster - you'd have to privide that detail - and our opinions would be like, "well, if this coin has nice luster, it'd be MS64" or whatever.

That still wouldn't help with the 1921. Part of the problem of grading a weakly-struck coin is you need to see the color of the cheek and other areas, because sometimes that's the only way to determine whether it's been circulated or not.

Even if you come up with something that's way to big to post here, I'd be happy to accept an emailed pic and modify it to best fit.

OK, I found, downloaded and read the operator's manual for your scanner - it seems that it has all the abilities required for you to produce larger images than you could possibly need here. It should be under See More Scan Settings on the All In One Main Page.

I found the users manual here http://support.dell.com/support/edo.../a920en1.pdf but haven't had time to actually look through it but I will do so later on tonight if it is still needed

that's 1000% better!!! I just checked back in to post how to do it from the manual but I guess you have already figured it out. Sorry I was unable to scan through the manual at the time when I posted it but I was doing the family thing at the time and had to wait until everyone went to bed before I read it. I am glad you figured it out and like I said the last pictures are allot better

Thanks guys - that scan made me feel like a kid hitting his first home run - sounds silly, but I've been scanning stuff for two years, and didn't know diddly about what I was doing. Getting good scans is a good feeling.

Ralph

That's a bummer MorganFred. Hope, by now, everything is straightened out, and you're back up, and running on all eight cylinders. :)