Gallienus Coin

I always thought Gallienus was one of the more interesting emperors during the late Roman Empire. I feel that he was given a bad rap, even though he did more to secure the boarders than many 3rd century emperors did. I love the coin and I think you did a great job taking photos of it.

The photo image is pretty good, especially now that you have it out of the plastic. What program are you using to make the collage? I'm using Picassa for my coins and it works well for me. One suggestion perhaps. If the program you are using allows you to adjust the lighting, both highlights and fill, maybe you could lighten the image just a tad without changing the color.

One thing I have also found when taking pictures is that natural light makes a huge difference. Try taking it outside and taking a picture. I did this with some of my coins. I stood in the shade and held the coin in my fingertips so you almost get a 3D effect. The image was much better than any I took inside. I uploaded a picture just to show what I mean, not to steal your thread. Give it a try.

Lastly, I love your coin. If the color is correct, its truly a beautiful coin. I think I can even make out the hair showing how well this coin is preserved. Now I'm jealous. I'm going to check my Gallienus coins and see if they even come close to yours. Nice addition to any collection for sure.

JW

Thanks very much for your comments jw. I'm going to try your suggestion about the sunlight. As for my procedure, I don't have any fancy program (thinking of downloading GIMP though). I just take the photos, use the CCF Image optimizer to crop them, put both photos together in Paint, and upload to Photobucket, where I get the direct link and put it into the thread.

And yes, that is his hair showing :)

I just remembered that Photobucket had an editing option for photos, so I tweaked the photo above to more accurately represent the color:

I think that part is in shade, probably the coin wasn't directly in the light or something.