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 Replies: 16 / Views: 2,296 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1704 Posts |
Hey SuperDave, I have tried to send some photos of three Morgan dollars for their respective Coin Facts pages and have not had any response acknowledging the receipt of that message. I uploaded them to the web in a folder which can be viewed at http://home.earthlink.net/~canary.girl/Morgans/ The three dollars are 1885-O, 1888-O and 1904-O all three of them are in mint state and are in my Morgan dollar date set, Dansco 7171. I tried to send you an email directly but I got a pop-up message stating I can't. I guess one must have a minimum number of posts to be able to do that. Pictures of the 1885-O, 1888-O and 1904-O in forum friendly sizes.       ANA LM-3175 Edited by Gyrene7483
04/04/2011 11:41 pm
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Got it. I have no idea why you were unable to email me; your postcount should qualify you for forum email unless the limit has been raised slightly and I'm unaware of it. That said, the multi-unit where I live had some ridiculous back-and-forth with Comcast last week, and both cable and Internet were spotty at times. You might have just chosen the right moment when my email was down.
I can pull them from your online folder. Are those full-size? They're a tad small, but beautifully shot - one does not normally see images of that quality from a camera which doesn't shoot them larger. I can make full use of them even small - they're that good - but if you have larger originals I'd prefer to work with them.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1704 Posts |
Dave, the images in the folder are much larger so you can edit them. These images were reduced so I could add them to the post. ANA LM-3175 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1554 Posts |
Very nice! All are great examples....
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
Oh, I was already referring to the folder; I'd seen those before I even posted here. I was just darn surprised to find images that nice at 700px, if they'd been shot by a camera which could only shoot them that small. If that's the biggest your camera will do for a shot this good, it means that you've got the process figured out to a degree that not one in a hundred could do with such a camera. Yeah, we can use these.  Thank you very, very much for your contribution. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1348 Posts |
Great pictures. Well done
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1704 Posts |
Dave, you give me too much credit. The images were originally over 2400 pixels each but not knowing it was easier for someone, such as yourself, to edit them from that size I reduced them. The pictures were taken outside in natural sunlight. Afternoons I have found are best to get true color. The camera is a Canon Rebel XT with an EF 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6 II zoom lens. Thank you all for the compliments and Dave you're welcome, I'm only too glad to help where I can. ANA LM-3175 |
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
I would much rather play with the originals, if possible. Wherever we can, we're going to be displaying them at 1000px or more. You still deserve plenty of credit; getting good coin images from a dSLR with a normal zoom lens isn't as east as it looks.
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Valued Member
United States
380 Posts |
Great photos!
Do you mind sharing your set up... as well as lighting?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1554 Posts |
These are the perfect size photos for coin grading and coin example viewing. Most photos shown on this website are way too large with the exception of determing VAM examples. Cheers to you Gyrene7483. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1554 Posts |
Also.....I would humbly suggest to the moderators of this great website that maybe something could be done about the very large photos when Forum members show their coins as they are just to unrealistic. I've tried to post to this website photos of my coins but they don't seem to work as it says something about too large or too many of whatever....As I've said, I'm a dinosaur when it comes to computers so maybe I'm off here but I do think this would be a good idea?
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
With all due respect, 1893S, these huge pics are far closer to what the coin actually looks like than the smaller ones. I would not confidently come within 3 points of a grade with pictures as small as those posted in this thread, even with their quality.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1554 Posts |
Well Dave, with all due respect I diagree with you. When grading coins it is most important to view the coin in hand as is. Then if you need minor magnification, as I do, to look for imperfections or wear, to hone in specifically....but, you should be able to get quite close with the naked eye. HIGH magnification tricks the mind in a lot of cases and I believe should only be used in very HIGH GRADES.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1554 Posts |
Or in other words as specifically to the coins shown by Gyrene as they are nice examples and other MS coins. Here is how I grade with the naked eye or minor magnification...MS60=scratched up, MS63=not too scratched up, MS65=no scratches, but, maybe a few very minor nicks or hairlines, MS66=almost perfect, MS67= basically perfect....
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1704 Posts |
Newbismatic my set up is nothing special, just a flat surface outside in the afternoon sun, between 4:00 and 6:00pm, for lighting. With the coin in front of me while I am facing the sun I position the camera directly above the coin and snap the picture. Sometimes I have to change either the coin's angle or my position to the sun to get the image I like.
1893S, I would agree with you that photos this size show plenty of detail without straining to look at than the much smaller sized pictures with are most often used on this forum but, for grading I would like to have the coin in hand or a much larger photo as Superdave recommends before I would commit to a specific grade. The three coins pictured above are graded MS-63, MS-63+ and MS-63 respectively.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
1893S, your points are quite valid. I disagree (somewhat), but that doesn't make you wrong. The images posted here are essentially what a TPG grader sees. They don't use loupes which blow the image up to the stupid size that I and others use, yet they're perfectly willing to differentiate between MS66 and MS67. Which, if you ask me, is just plain wrong, and the reason why their grading is all over the place. In a world where we grade Choice, Gem and Superb Uncirculated, what appears in this thread is all we need for appropriate grading. However, we're using 11 different grade levels for Mint State coins, and that requires a whole lot more information than 350-pixel pictures can ever provide. The 1885-O presented here is a very nice 63, almost certainly 64. The images on the OP's remote site of the same coin, 650 pixels in diameter, are a slam-dunk 65. Yet, the possibility remains that the area around ICA could be something which would render the coin ungradable; I just can't tell based on even 650px images. If I had that image in 1000 or 1100 pixels, I probably could. I will grade any coin in-hand with no more than a 5x loupe, and be perfectly comfortable with my decision. In photographs, on the Internet, I need more. I know far too much about what a camera and varying lighting can do to a coin's appearance to feel otherwise. |
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Replies: 16 / Views: 2,296 |
Posted 04/04/2011 11:47 pm
