I am planning on ordering a digital scale from the States. Here is one web shop that I have been looking at: http://www.rightonscales.com/web/home/

What would be a good general purpose scale for coins? I do not deal with ancients and very minimally with medieval coins. My area of collecting normally does not bring me into direct contact with the more common forgeries. I am looking for something that will help me on the occasion when I get an unknown coin, want to double check a gold/silver coin for authenticity, etc.
I have been looking at the Tanita 102. It has a maximum capacity of 100g and accuracy to 0.1g. Would this be sufficient for general use like mine?

Also, I plan on ordering a Belomo loupe. From what I have read it is the best low-priced loupe out there. Any suggestions as to where I can order this inexpensively?

Thanks for your help!

Well, as a owner of a 50x0.01 grams scale I'm very pleased with it, never had the need to go over 50g and if it's a scale only for coins you won't need 100g (with very few exceptions of course) and the 0.01g precision helps to keep the paranoia away from your head...

And you'll find a caliper very useful too.

Regarding loupes, if you don't want to spend money on a Bausch & Lomb, and don't want to go over 10x, most of the loupes will be OK although i would like to test the loupe in person, there's no chance of getting one in Finland?

BTW, how annoying are your customs? Taking a look to British and German Ebay may save you some time.

Jose

Loupes etc is a false market.
The Chinese/Indians have sussed it.
I paid recently £1.99 for an aluminiuum X10 eye piece and less than £4 for a x2O
loupe...( you could BIN for £10)
Both are perfect for my use ...Don't get ripped off.

It really does anger me that a while back Colleagues were working in Turkey and buying Polo shirts for £1 each....the same shirts were being shipped over to India and having the Lacoste emblem sown on and then sold in UK for £35.
MUGS.
Look at the loupe Ebayers feedback and go from there.

Mine was a gift at Christmas. It came from Eyemagnify and I'm well satisfied with it. They do have a website but I think it's down.

There are basically two kinds of loupe:

1. Bausch&Lomb
2. the others

Hope that was helpful. ;-)

For one who deals with jewelry that may be true. However, for my minimal and amateur use, I do not know if I could justify the use for a B&L; I would rather have the difference in cost going to a coin for me to look at.

Thanks for the input!

As for the customs, items coming from within the EU I need not worry about. Coming from outside the EU, I have had a couple of packages that I had to pick up from customs -and paying the customs fee . At least with this shipment I will not have to worry. A relative is coming to Finland from the US in august. I am ordering a 2006 Krause and some other items to be brought. The prices are much cheaper than in Finland.

h**p://stores.ebay.com/Precision4Less-Digital-Scales_W0QQssPageNameZstrkQ3amefsQ3amesstQQtZkm

Sir Sisu
As I understand it most low priced balances come from china and some local guy puts his name on the product
a 50 gram at 0.01 gram would be nice
Another must is to have a calibrated weight at least to check the maximum of
50 gram
Then you have a zero and 50 grams check ( range check )
what happens at 10 -20-30-40 grams would be a mystery ( because you cannot check linearity ) but is acceptable
since with an accuracy of 0.01 you should not be off by more then 0.03 grams
anywhere in between
The only vendor that has the accuracy and the calibrating weight asks 14.95 euro

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...item=7530259418

He has them all the time so do not worry about the 2 hours the auction runs
He also has all the other ranges

For a loupe I really splurged and bought a real German Eschenbach LED loupe
10X in Germany from an online shop that only sells in germany
but since I speak the lingo they agree to ship to Belgium

http://www.eschenbach.com/preview.php?pid=109

This loupe is perfect to look for problems but not to "enjoy" your coins
because with the LED side lighting it highlights all problems like drying stains
from dips and dust and lint etc

I ordered my Krause from amazon.de germany
Original american print
I was amazed how cheaply they can get in into euope and I seem to remember because of the price they shipped it free to belgium and NO custom problems

Verzeihung! Du hast nicht recht.

Zeiss is the number one optics firm in the world. No one is better than Zeiss.

You might say that the cheap lenses and loupes are "just fine" for your use and perhaps they are. A couple of things come into play. Cognitive dissonance says that we justify the choices we make, so whatever you bought will be what you recommend. That is only human nature. Also, some people care about the chromatic aberration and other problems with second-tier products.

Just for the record, I always carry a 5x aspherical B&L hardshell in my briefcase. It is fine for what I do. I do not collect errors. I care little about repunched Mint marks. Most of my work is naked eye (or with reading glasses) and I rarely use a lens at all. So, for me, the $7.95 B&L is fine. That said, Zeiss is the best optics firm in the world. If you want to shop for bargains and take a trade-off on price vs. performance, then that is your choice. If you are serious about your lenses and loupes, microscopes, telescopes and planetariums, then you buy Zeiss.

http://www.zeiss.de
http://www.zeiss.com

Zeiss microscopes and binoculars are indeed very fine , but their single lens loupes are no better than B&L loupes though they cost more in the US. In a loupe, the price differential isn't worth it, IMO.

Multilens devices are a different matter, though I don't know any coin collectors who use anything other than a pocket loupe or handheld magnifier.

my 10x loupe is a dual lense, no brand. It costed me a few euro in a local store where they measure your eyes and sell glasses and contact lenses. I tested the loupe myself, befoer I bought it. They had two different ones and this one was significanlty better than the other one that only had a single lense. The distortion of a dual lense is less. An even better slution would be a triplet, with 3 lenses, but they didn't have one available. They could order one, but is would be significantly more expensive.

In my opinion any lense from germany at whatever cost will be allright
For 20 years I had a loupe without spec : probably a 3X which worked
very well
the 10 X aspheric from Eschenbach which I got now with built in lighting with a LED
is really too much for everyday use
But it sure will show up a bad acetone wash ; so I rewash

No serious collector should be without a stereomicroscope -- it's just amazing what you can see that a loop can miss -- like metal flow, subtle RPM's, etc.

I bought an Eschenbach lens for about £16 I thought it was x7 but in fact it was only x 4.
A fantastic product and at coin fairs the dealers know you mean business.
By the whay always say hello first ...if you are looking at an expensive coin it gives the seller reassurance.

Digging up an old thread as it has become relevant again.


The loupe I eventually purchased was a Belomo. It was inexpensive and has served me well!

I am now after a scale. I am looking for a minimum 50gx0.01g capability. I have found a store that sells for a decent price. From their inventory I have narrowed it down to 2 brands and 2 models from each. I will post the links below. Does anyone have any opinions/experience/second-hand knowledge/etc about any of these??

Around $40 JS-50
Around $50 Jscale HP-50
Around $60 MyWeigh Durascale 50
Around $90 MyWeigh MX-50

Er, no...

But before buying one, take in consideration the scale portability, when the lid is closed does it cover all buttons? Useful if you want to carry it (now and then), and i would prefer a scale with a calbration weight included.


Jose

Could you provide some links to some decent ones? Never heard of this kind of microscope (then again I've never looked at coins through one).

I definitely will, but it will not be the deciding factor as I am sure most of the use for me will be at home.




All of these come with a 50g weight.


btw Jose, what do you use?

About 99% of them bring a weight, just be sure te one you buy has one...

Mine is an old "RiteWeight" RW-Notebook, i don't know if its still being made. It's a bit thick but it's very pocket friendly and got all the weights of UNC gold coins that i've checked exact (by the 100th gram)! The maximum weight is actually 55 grams, and the minimum is 0.05 grams.

But i think that nowadays, about all the 50/0.01 scales have the same quality (except the really cheap ones...), 50 Euro will buy you a very nice machine.

Jose

I know there have been many posts but I'd like to share what I use.
Loupe: B&L 5X
B&L 10X Coddington
Scale: Acculab Model 333 Electronic Digital
capacity-300g
graduation-0.1g
accuracy- +-0.1g
weighing mode- g., oz., ozt., dwt.
AC or 9volt w/adaptor
Mem., Tare function
Calbration weight
The loupes serve 99% of my needs. The scale is a pleasure to use. I've had it for approx. 10 years and it's still like new.

Hope this may aide you. Mike