Nonmortuus

Couple of new additions. I was after a 1927 and already had a 1912 but the toning in the awful sellers picture caught my eye. Not the greatest grade but my wife likes it!

I liked toned silver but would rather it was acquired over time rather than artificially done: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/How-to-add-extra-value-to-your-collectors-coins-Give-them-rainbow-toning-/161962306255?hash=item25b5b4aacf:g:OsUAAOSwnLdWqyzm

Not the highest grade but it is definitely toned....

Ok so re took the pictures of the 1911 above:

No problem. Photojoiner is a Web based tool so no download. Just go to the site and edit away

Hi Mynki, a lovely first coin! Regarding the photo editing, if your using Windows 10 you can crop photos down with the picture viewer it has. If not then you can use http://www.photojoiner.net/ to crop, resize and join pictures for free. I use Windows 10 to crop them and photo joiner to join the Obv and Rev pictures into one so they look like this:

I need to take a better picture of the 1911 Sixpence I have but, as per some of the other examples, mine has a nose that implies he has done 12 rounds with Tyson Fury.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/George-lV-Halfcrown-1823-/301854459884?hash=item4647ed87ec:g:OKkAAOSw5dNWokuZ How much for a bad copy?

1 down 29 more to go!

Yup that should read published by.... but the editing facilty on this forum is awful

Hi Liam, welcome to the forums. There are plenty of people here to help with grading but I would suggest, as a start, that you buy the book written by the person who provides these forums for us. It really will help you get your head around grading.

No Macro lens as yet. I just turn on the in built marco setting and try to ensure that the coin takes up as much of the view screen as possible while leaving just a little bit of wiggle room so I can straighten the coin when editing it, cropping it down and joining two pictures. I spent 3 or 4 hours the other night playing with the angle of the lamp and found that having it pretty much directly above the coin bought out the most toning and depth/ It is still a work in progress and once I do have some free time and natural daylight to play with I will retake a few and see how they compare.

Yes NordIe have been using a daylight LED lamp and a Nikon COOLPIX L120 14MP Digital Bridge Camera on a tripod with Macro on. The camera is about 8 to 12 inches from the coin. I struggle to find time in the day when I can use natural daylight due to work and the kids This may change as the days get longer again!

I posted this elsewhere but, on the advice of Paulus, this is probably a more logical place to post it. I have been messing around with my lighting rig and wanted to show you the difference between my old set up and the new on the first coin I purchased, what do you think @Nordle11@GateGateGo@Peter? Would you believe it is the same coin?:

My intial thread.... but up above you will see my 1849 Florin. Here is the same coin with the new lighting rig so you can see the difference:

Thanks both. Still huge amounts to learn but I'm happy that experienced collectors think I am making progress.

So I have been playing around with my technique when it comes to take photos of my coins. This is a the 1915 Halfcrown I own, again a new pic with the new lighting setup. Below that is my 1787 with hearts sixpence I picked up recently again with the picture taken with my new lighting set up, excuse the line under the Rev, thats a hole in the foam of the case, I misaligned the coin.

Couple of dates I already had but these are decent upgrades:

I was told by someone who was toning 2oz silver rounds that they used eggs and the associated sulphar they release.

Ian Pratt, unfortunatly no web site or ebay sales but he is a pleasant guy to talk to and has a good selection on offer. He is there each month.

Hi Jerry, yes it is. I paid substantially less then he originally wanted but still probably over paid however I wanted a 1913 and I like to deal with Ian. Ian, along with Rob and Mark, have been really good when I have looked at their stuff and have taken the time to have a chat and give me a few pointers. P.S. Always good to see you at the fair, I'm honestly not stalking you its just a very small room so every time you turn around I'm there ?

Thanks Frank, The coins do look far nicer in hand, I just bought another daylight lamp so need a few hours one night to play around with my pictures. The ones above were just taken with the flash on and aimed above the coin.

A couple of newbies. I need to work on my photographs as they do the coins no justice: A 1913 Halfcrown has proved to be a pain in the bum to find: This one is courtesy of Rob and is my first early milled/pre 1816 example:

Same for me regarding the right hand side marks. As for the left side I am finding it extremely hard to tell from the pictures due to different lighting etc.

Thanks for sharing Paulus. If I ever submit to CGS you are the first person I will speak to about it!