I wish I could say I worked for hours in a program until I was satisfied with this outcome...but alas I cannot. It did take me a couple of hours until I got to this point and after I did it the first time I was able to duplicate a second version in about 20 minutes.

I was lucky enough to find a template for the picture. The template has the shadows and to a certain extent the reflection too. You do have to crop your pictures and size them, you have to flip your images and place them beneath the main image and then when you merge them into the "reflection" layer, you get the mirrored image. I then place my title and the rest is history.

I do think the overall image is fantastic. I got the idea from halfdollar here at this site and then upon further investigation I was able to find the original template by becokacoins, who like halfdollar is very gracious by offering their template for others use.

Thank you for the complement and I too think it is a very cool and professional looking presentation that I think I will be keeping for future use!

It does give the coin/medal a real museum look.

Using my new coin photo template, here is a schützen medal from the Seventh Schützenfest held in Münich, Germany in 1881

Spectacular piece.

Rod, your photos have always been good but these last two are truly professional looking.

The details you got on the Murten and the frosted cameo devices on the Munich, especially on the eagle's wings, are just amazing.
I come here sometimes just to look at your photos.

And with 22,751 views, so do a lot of other people...

Thank you very much for your kind words Kim.

Mine is a labor of love and I am happy that others, yourself included, appreciate the true artistic qualities of schützenfest medals.

I enjoy posting the pictures as well as learning more about improving techiniques of presentation.

Interesting items in your current Schutzenfest auction Rod.

Paper jetons? I had no idea they even existed.
All have bids too. Must be pretty rare...

PS - I'm working a double shift on Halloween and hope you list a nice Holy Freres medal in the next auction that I can bid on with my overtime $$$...

Hi Kim,

Yes, paper jetons are quite rare indeed. It least many of them are.

Jetons started out as metallic and then because of the cost associated they turned to paper (1880's), then evolved to stamps and then back to metallic issues. The paper and stamp jetons did not last many years because of the fragility of the material.

At schützenfests, jetons were used like money. A participant would purchase a quantity of jetons and then use them to purchase ammunition, meals etc. within the schützenfest grounds. He would also have to present jetons to enter the shooting stand of the shoot he had entered.

So, as you can imagine, paper jetons are quite rare because they were not issued for many years and because of the fact they are made of paper and thus have not survived in great numbers through the years.

In Richter's jeton book, many jetons do not have an associated cost due to their rarity.



On another note, I hope to have a Holy Freres medal up for auction in the near future.

Rod

Here are a couple of examples of paper jetons hiho mentioned above:

I was hoping you would post those paper jeton photos in this thread Rod.