If your expecting an order from the mint don't hold your breath.


February 7, 2008 - Due to the severe weather in the Tennessee area, the United States Mint is currently not shipping from its fulfillment facility in Memphis for the next one to two weeks. Expedited shipping will not be available until further notice. We apologize for this inconvenience. Please be assured that we will ship your orders as soon as possible.

I got my Eagle Comm. on Tuesday.

When did you order your Eagle Commemorative coin(s)?

I heard they are shipping them via Fedex, and leaving them on doorsteps. Brilliant.

This is great because I just read the latest issue of Coin World and the Head of the mint said in his apology for the web site store being down: "I apologize, this is not the level of service you should expect from the mint and I'll be sure to take steps in the future to ensure the quality of the service you deserve."

Even more brilliant is using FedeX. My last order from the Mint came that way. A lady driver walked up to my door, handed me the box, said "Here are the coins you ordered"
Great. I try to keep it a secret due to living in bad neighborhood and even the those drivers know what is being delivered.

My Fedex driver came up to me and said "Here's your coins, the laundry just finished, pick the kids up from school, and don't forget to walk the dog." I looked at her in complete disbelief. I was like "How did you know they were coins?"

Get a PO Box and have all your coins shipped there. It is not perfect anonymity, but pretty close. My post office thinks I am in the post card and baseball card business.

My Fedex driver came up to me and said "Here's your coins, the laundry just finished, pick the kids up from school, and don't forget to walk the dog. Oh, by the way there's a guy on your roof with your collection." I looked at her in complete disbelief. I was like "How did you know they were coins?"

Problem with a PO Box is, you need to pick the mail up there - which is fine if the post office is near your home/office or within easy reach. If not, well ... Also, at least over here you would have to pay for such a box. Not much (€15 or so) but if the alternative is getting the mail without any fee, I am cheap.

Christian

Nice coin Dock. That's the first real image of the Bald Eagle commemorative coins I've seen!

Quick scan, came out blurry. Blah.

Still a nice coin.

i pay for a private mailbox ... the big advantage is that other delivery services can deliver to a private mailbox--only the usps can deliver to a post office box in the u.s. private mailbox services usually have better hours than the post office.

Just a reminder. Anyone interested in the Eagle Commem. coins. The price goes up on Thursday the 14th.

Get your orders in now to get the lower price.

I do a lot of coin shots but I think this one of the new Bald Eagle came out well. Any of you guys from GIM?

Fantastic photograph.

I use a Canon 20D with a 100mm macro lens and a diffused Speedlite on a Kaiser copy stand and sometimes get results that good.

Care to share your photography secrets? Please...

I LIKE THE PRETTY PICTURE!!

MS-70

Most of my shots have been made with a Sony Alpha 100 DSLR though I've recently traded to an A700. The lens is the same though, a Minolta 100mm f2.8 macro. If there is any secret, it's in the lighting. Below is a shot of my setup. All of the lights are 5000K fluorescents except for one, which is an incandescent flood. That's where the color comes from. Some coins look better with a uniform silver color, some don't. Also below, I'll show a 2005 Britannia upon which I've made heavy use of color and shadow. Also, I shoot at high f stops (>13) necessitating timed or remote release to keep from touching the camera.

My photos are no where near as good as those!

You must teach us, oh wise one!

Clive.

Tom, I think you have convinced me to buy a small soft box, and I have a new found respect for Sony digital cameras. (I worked for Sony for 13 years and have owned four of their earlier models.) Your lighting scheme is very good, one question, is the incandescent flood bulb color corrected?

The photo of the Britannia is fantastic by the way. Thanks for sharing your secrets.

Are those compact fluorescents? They better be or I'll tell Al Gore.

In answer to another question first, yes the bulbs are 37 watt CF so please call Gore off.

Before I started using the light box, it was extremely difficult to balance between coin illumination and hot spots.

The flood was packaged as a "daylight" flood but the color is off to the red side. That's OK, that's the reason that I use it on some, but not all, of my silver shots. Some coins look better without the added color temperature. I don't use it on the gold shots, I substitute another CF.

Sony bought Minolta a couple of years ago and their two-year-old DSLR line has a lot of Minolta DNA, including the Minolta lens mount. Minolta has produced some truly nice glass from time to time and there is a lot of it out there plus there is a line of Zeiss lenses to fit. The new Sony A700 goes head to head with some of the best from Nikon and Canon

I was unaware that Sony acquired Minolta.
Sony always made good digital cameras, my wife still uses my old FD-91 for eBay, and it still takes great pictures on a floppy disc.
I bet she's taken over 200000 photos with it. Maybe more.

I agree that the A700 produces results every bit as good as anything available from Canon and Nikon. Your photos speak for themselves.