Emperor Oli

Yeah it's quite heavily toned but rather reflective at the same time. I wanted to bring the colours out, but I need some more practice!

I just use a tripod faced directly down and a handheld light, with some other fixed ones. I then just move the handheld one around until I the coin is lit well, and then shoot. Photography is a popular topic on CU, with topics such as this. Do a search from the CU main page for "photography" and about eight pages popup. Edit: Just took this one quickly using a paper tube to diffuse the light. Chris may recognise it...

It depends what condition it is in, so don't jump straight to those top values. The coin you saw would have probably been in very good condition, able to command such prices. Also, there are several varieties of this coin. If you register and post a picture, we can find out which variety it is, approximate the grade, and give you a rough idea of value.

I had some other info on it before, but yours is very comprehensive so I don't think I need any more! Thank you.

I think it is tin, and yes it does have the name under the bust. Thank you very much for that information!

I wouldn't bother with a printer. The costs are exorbitant: the paper costs a fortune, and you go through ink like nobody's business. We have our digital photos developed at Boots, it costs something like 35p per print and I doubt that's the cheapest around. Just take your memory device in and they will develop them.

I'm sure it's in there. Leaf through the pages of Elizabeth II one at a time, I tend to miss things if I look for them quickly!

Page 484, 2006 issue.

It's a sixpence actually, but I tend to get them confused. You can only really tell by the size, of which that photo doesn't give much information. Took me ages to find a decent enough example. The dealer had it marked up at EF prices and sold it for nEF, the grade I thought it ought to have.

I got a new camera (Sony P200 for those interested) and just took a shot of a £2 on the offchance that it would come out better than a scan. It did, so I spent yesterday afternoon photographing various coins. I don't have a fancy photo setup as some people tend to have, just a tripod and a handheld light source.

I know this is aimed at mintmark, but sometimes I don't remove the background around the coin. If I've shot it dead on, all I use is a circular marquee tool around the coin and a quick Copy/Paste into a new canvas: I remove the coin from the canvas.

I photographed them on white card then removed the background in Photoshop and replaced it with black.

The medal is refusing to be resized so I shall post that later.

My scans of purchases from the fair in November were awful. My new digital camera arrived yesterday so I took some pictures on the offchance that they would be good, and I think they're a lot better than my scans!

I've bought off her before, and when I did (which was about a year ago) her grading was spot on. Interesting how it has slid...

Ok, the first one will be that the legend is struck with the Vs as upside-down, or inverted, As. Both the second and third are letters struck over others, with the D being struck over a U, and a R struck over an E.

Like that, but in a silver colour? It was struck in 2005 to commemorate Samuel Johnson's dictionary, and is worth about 50p. Fools on eBay would pay more though.

Likewise! I could pick you out from across the room

So what do we all think of the brand spanking new edition? I for one like it; the higher quality paper for both the cover and pages is wonderful, and gives it a feel that the previous edition was lacking. The cover art is also exceptional, with the 1807 1d looking really quite striking. All in all a lovely book, and for under a fiver it's a drop in the ocean compared to some other catalogues. --- As for the typos I found, on the back cover, second line "rsearchers" missing an "e" obviously, and the inside page facing the back cover has "opportinity" instead of "opportunity". That's all I saw with a quick scan of the text.

That was my thinking, but I didn't think I could go wrong for a fiver!

A medal, most probably German. Ludwig Von Schwanthaler on obverse.

Just done some quick and extremely dirty scans to see if anyone can shed any light on these

I sure did! Got to the reception at 8:50ish, only to be told it opened at 9:30. So I went walkabout for half an hour and returned. Queued for a few minutes and then the floodgates opened. Everyone streamed inside, trying to look as dignified as possible as they crammed at the various dealers' tables. I skipped the first few due to the heavy traffic, and started in the ante room. Looking around there, it was mostly ancient material along with early hammered. Near the end of that room I saw an 1826 6d that I had been looking for for ages. I thought it graded aEF, and priced at £80 I thought rather expensive. So I bore it in mind for later and moved on into the main hall. On the first table there, I saw not one but two 6ds in far better condition than the first one. I made a mental note to revisit that table. Moving along, most of the other tables held nothing that interested me, not to mention the fact that I was seemingly invisible to most dealers and indeed the fair-goers who thought it acceptable to push and barge whoever they chose. Quite a few of the dealers sat in their chairs reading the paper, making it feel as if you were priviliged to be taking up their time, or the others who gave a monosyllabic "No" to stock queries. However, I digress. One aspect I wasn't expecting (perhaps marking me out as a coin show newbie) was the junk boxes many dealers had on their stalls. I took a sort of guilty pleasure in rifling through these coins and medals. I came out with a commemorative medal from the Spink stand and an ancient Greek coin and an 18th century Spanish one from another. I guess I was buying on impulse because I thought these coins were so cheap, probably because they were! I shall endeavour to post some scans soon. After circling the room once, I noticed Vale of London was less busy than when I entered, so I made a bee-line for it. After waiting for a few moments, I introduced myself to our very own Chris Perkins, who gave me the warmest of welcomes. I bought the new Collectors' Coins and I must say it looks as smart as ever. True to form, I did notice a typo on the back when I returned to my hotel and was in two minds whether to go back and tell him! After bantering about the book sales and the new Spink, I was generously shown a whole tray of Wreath Crowns. Usually I don't find them that interesting, but there was something about an array of them that was, well, je ne sais quoi. From the Vale stand I bought something from Russia which had caught my eye on another forum. Bidding adieu to Vale Coins and Chris, I made my way over to the stand that held the sixpences. When they came out of the case, there was a stark difference in grade. I plumped for the higher grade example, forgiving a slight gouge under the eye. With a handsome discount, I was more than happy. On the way out, I was even convinced to subscribe to Coin News! All in all, a very very enjoyable morning.