ikaros

I knew those would get mentioned eventually, although I'm surprised the SBA didn't come up before the Ike. I'm not sure that "shine" is really the adjective you're looking for here... Sure, I can see further category splits for age. I could call them "Newer Doesn't Mean Better" and "Move Over, Gramps"

The white balance on my new camera is pretty good at filtering out the color imbalance in the CF bulb I usually shoot under. The daylight bulb is probably the best, though.

Yeah, generally the amount of post I do is fairly minimal: crop, white balance, maybe a level of unsharp masking if it seems to need it. For coin photography, I'll usually use some combination of the three, with varying degrees of success, as a quick glance at my Omnicoin page will demonstrate.

Oh, I can think of a couple older coins I have that are just not well thought out. Maybe there should be a dividing line somewhere around 1980...

I don't think we can take "Everything since 1980" as an entry. I'm thinking of organizing it this way: Ugly By Nature Aging Like Mayonnaise, Not Wine - Coins that simply haven't aged well at all but are still identifiable as a coin, or are unusually but naturally worn at a relatively young age Victims of Circumstance - Coins that have suffered the ravages of nature, having been corroded or left in the street and run over a few times or partially digested... or all three. Ugly by Design I'm Not Bad, I'm Just Engraved That Way - Surely the most subjective of all categories, these are coins that are otherwise perfectly normal coins, but are aesthetically challenged. You Poor Poor Thing - This is for coins that have been the deliberate victim of experimentation or alteration -- holed coins, or the ones you see where the fields have been cut out leaving the design (I *hate* seeing those!!), or coins that have been squashed on a railroad track, or sacrifices to mad science, like the pennies I used to make a copper acetate solution when I was doing some home chemoplating. Ultimately, of course, there would be a final round within, and then between the two main headings. I am, of course, open to suggestion.

Would anyone be interested in an Ugly Coin Competition? There doesn't seem to have been one for a while, I haven't heard anyone mention a PCI 2014 yet, and so I've half talked myself into running one if there's interest. Talk me into the other half.

eBay, my LCS, and the state coin show in September pretty much take care of my needs. Major purchases, I prefer to do in person. I would be highly unlikely to spend more than ten dollars a throw at an eBay coin--I mainly use it for world coin purchases, and almost all of those are circulated. My Jeffs, I need to see them in person before I spend money on them.

I've had really good results from a Sony Cybershot and a Polaroid i1437; I recently got a Sanyo S1414 since both the Sony and the Polaroid went walkies and I'm likin' it so far because it's by and large running the same software as the Polaroid did. Speaking of software, I'd also recommend The GIMP for your post-processing needs, since it's at least as powerful as Photoshop, but is open source (i.e., free).

I don't like the idea of eliminating them; I prefer revaluing and making them worth something again. Make one old nickel into one new penny, then the old dime is 2 new cents, the old quarter is 5 new cents, the half becomes ten new cents and the dollar is twenty new cents, and we've not only saved the penny but also moved to the Euro system in a relatively painless way. You add a new 50c piece which would be worth $2.50 of the old money (the quarter eagle returns!), and the old $5 is the new $1, and so on.

I have no problem with changing the metal content, particularly in the cents and nickels. I'd have no problem with an aluminium cent and a steel nickel, for example. I'd also like to see the paper $1 and $5 eliminated and $2 and $5 circulating coins added. Personally, I wouldn't even mind a wholesale change in the currency. I'm a fan of the Euro system of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cent coins.

1969S Jefferson nickel, which fills another hole in my from-circulation set. 1989D closes out that book. Why that hasn't turned up yet, I don't know. But I do love finding San Francisco coins in change.

Hah. He said "plan". Like I plan anything. Get the Jeffs back on track, with the specific goal of one early proof. That's really about it. Keep bangin' away at the Jeffersons, and maybe even get started on the Ikes. Grab anything loosely defined as both "neat" and "affordable".

If I was going to drop serious money (in my case, anything more than $20) on a single coin I would need to see it in person first, but eBay is vital for my birth year collection. Lots of foreigns that just don't turn up in the ol' LCS, or that I'd have to wait for the state show in September, can be had quite reasonably online. I do make a point of always checking feedback, though. There have been a couple times that I've been scared off of pulling the trigger because of a sudden wave of negative feedbacks in the last month, or because a certain geographic region has recently or chronically been unstable -- I had to let a few things I wanted go recently (couple really nice pieces of space race memorabilia from the Soviet side) because they were in Ukraine, and I want to let things settle down over there first. Otherwise, if I see 100% over a decent number of feedbacks, or if the value is so low I'm not going to suffer for the loss, I generally don't worry about it.

o/` Back in the saddle again... o/` Oh, let there be joy in the house of ik, he finally has a decent camera again and can relegate that fershlugginer Vivitar to being a paperweight! 14Mpx Sanyo, more or less same under the hood as the Polaroid I lost last summer. It's second hand and hot pink and when the temperature climbs out of the basement, I'm going to fairly scamper down to Alum Creek for a photographic safari. And today, my first National Park quarter in ages:

No, no, no... I need to choose them myself, looking for that ineffable something that makes me choose one coin over another essentially identical one. If I were to want numismatic gifts, it would be in the form of supplies and folders, not coins... gift certificates to my LCS being a possible exception.

LCS up in Westerville. There are two others in the area, but I stopped patronizing them when their owners decided their politics were more important than a comfortable customer environment. I've had good luck on eBay, although that's only for lesser purchases, impulse buys, and coins where the condition is less important than the coin itself. Serious coins, like for the fallow but still active Jefferson Project, I want to see in person before laying down my money, so those are always from the LCS or the annual state coin show.

Am I the only one thinking, "Now if I could train them to pick out the silver or national park quarters and bring them to me..."?

Yaknow, I genuinely hadn't thought that they might have had other things to think about in 1942... I've also already started poking around eBay to see if I can find any in an earlier state of damage, with cracks. That would be hella cool, to find a whole run from zero cracks to this one. Obsession, thy name is coinage...

One more from the state show last month (although I have more than this one to image yet). I'm popping this up here because I discovered some interesting defects in the strike that I didn't see when I bought it. There are no less than five die cracks -- one on the obverse and four on the reverse -- a possible small cud on the reverse rim, and there's a strange sort of collar-like effect on the top of the reverse, like the die was just a bit off center. The only ones that show up at this scale are the one that connects with the base of the '2' on the reverse, and with the bottom right of the 'N' in 'PENCE'. Looking closer at the obverse, we see one connecting with the upper left of the "B" in 'BR'. I don't know why the scan makes the coin look dirty, it doesn't look this bad in hand. And on the reverse, there's a whole array of them: I'm kind of surprised the reverse die got that damaged without anyone noticing and taking it out of service. I count 7 errors on this one coin - five die cracks, the weird collaring on the upper left edge of the reverse, and what looks like a cud at the base of the crack going into the 2 on the reverse, but I am quite prepared to stand corrected since I don't collect errors.

A nest in the machine? Are they sure the birds weren't just looking for a change-ing room? It does bring a whole new meaning to 'finding new living quarters', doesn't it?

That's the plan, to get 4/3 to Nikon F and MC/MD adapters so I don't have to do any modifications. I was disappointed when I learned that Nikons are not backward compatible, though. I mean, there is still a LOT of F-mount glass out there.

I've had reasonably good luck with scans, but I would much rather go the photography route. So much more control.

I'm saving up for a Sony Alpha, or any other 4/3 mount DSLR I can afford, so I can get adapters and use both my Minolta and Nikon lenses. I talked to a Nikon rep at the last camera show here in town and asked about Nikon DSLRs; he advised me that my classic lenses could be modified to work with it, but added, "but DON'T DO THAT!"

I really don't like the modern 'Miss Hathaway' Jeffs -- except as proofs. Then they look good. I do wish they'd also restored Schlag's original angled view of Monticello when they changed the portrait (and that delicious Deco lettering). Ah, well.

Here come the Jeffys! 1974: 1981P: 1972S: 1974S: 1975S: 1979S Type I: 1980S: 2006S: