Vfox Posted May 19, 2009 Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 So...I got the soon to be wife a Nikon P90 for her birthday, she has quite the desire to get into photography. I figured it would be a good starter camera being 12 megapixels with a 24x optical zoom. Anyway, I decided to swipe it tonight and try to re-image some of my coins. I think I need a lighting unit, but I think they turned out okay for using a table lamp. I will have to get better at photographing through slabs however, stupid tombs. 1885 DMPL Morgan Dollar NTC MS-64 (A bit overgraded, but it is NTC afterall) 1804 Draped Bust Half Cent NTC MS-63 (I'm not sure how to feel about this grade, it looks like a weak strike, but overall spotless) 1805 Half Dime NTC F-15 Scratched (Like the dollar, overgraded and a weak strike - I broke this out of it's tomb a few years ago) 1895 Proof Indian Head Cent ANACS PF-60 Polished Impaired Proof (This photo isn't very flattering for this) 1802 over 1 Draped Bust Dollar, Heraldric Eagle Reverse (Raw, I put this about a VG or so) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoRnholio Posted May 19, 2009 Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 Excellent pics. I really like that draped bust dollar. Those are some not too poorly graded coins (considering it's NTC). I've seen some close up pics of how they grade Canadian coins and it's often 3-4 grades too high. How did you position your table lamp for the lighting? I have a pretty good daylight spectrum lamp that I use for my shots, but I always end up with glare or uneven lighting in my pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted May 19, 2009 Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 That 1804 is a beauty. Nice photo. You might need a light diffuser. There are instructions somewhere on the net for making one from a milk carton. Of course the slight uneven distribution of the light is one of the things giving the coins depth, which I really like. Are the coins slabbed? I've never been able to get my coolpix to focus on the coin rather than the top surface of the slab. Overall I'd say excellent photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vfox Posted May 19, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2009 Thanks for the tips. I had the lamp above the coins by about 2 feet on a shelf. It was not covered by a lampshade, so the coins needed to be slightly tilted towards the camera to avoid a glare from the light bulb. The dollar and half dime are not slabbed, everything else is still in a slab. I had to put these images into photoshop to correct the contrast on the slabbed coins however because they did come out looking rather like I took the shot in mist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiho Posted May 23, 2009 Report Share Posted May 23, 2009 Very good photos vfox, and I love that 1804 half cent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmoneyeagles Posted May 24, 2009 Report Share Posted May 24, 2009 What is NTC??? A grading company? Never head of it.. The 1802 looks better than VG... The 1804 looks better than a 63 to me... The 1805 looks to have been cleaned... And your morgan is stunning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vfox Posted May 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2009 What is NTC??? A grading company? Never head of it..The 1802 looks better than VG... The 1804 looks better than a 63 to me... The 1805 looks to have been cleaned... And your morgan is stunning Yes, NTC is one of those little known grading companies. They are not known for their accuracey; just as in my other post about the topic of slabbed coins, I buy for the coin, not the slab or printed grade. The 1802 could grade a un-conservative high Vg-10 to F-12 by some standards, but I grade it at a conservative Vg-8. I honestly can't find a real blemish on the 1804 either, there is a small dink on the edge at about 4 o'clock on the obverse and 3 o'clock on the reverse, but other that than, the lacking detail is from a weak strike. I would still grade it around here though because of the strike, probably a bit less. The 1805 isn't cleaned, but certainly worn smooth on the obverse. They are known for weak strikes, oddly enough the reverse was struck well on this example. I really want to upgrade this guy, but money is tight because of the wedding. The morgan is so much better in hand, I got it for less than the greysheet price because NTC has a back reputation for grading. It worked to my advantage here because the coin is stunning. I do think it's only a MS-63, it has a lot of chatter, but DMPL non-the-less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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