Art1.2 Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 I think that Indian Head Cents are about the prettiest coins that the US has ever minted. Maybe I feel this way because I think I can relate to the generations of children who thrilled at the site of a whole penny of their own to take to the candy store. Maybe because as a kid I could afford to collect pennies and the occassional Indian Head was a great treasured find. Anyway their about my favorite of all coins, not matter what condition they survive in. So here are some from my collection. What about yours? 1900 Indian Head Cent - NCS Certified "Improperly Cleaned" This is the omnicoin version of the image 1900 Unc obv by UGotaHaveArt, on Flickr 1900 Unc rev by UGotaHaveArt, on Flickr Far more detail and far more attractive - the flicr version in medium size Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 1903 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 1903 Now that's a beautiful coin Mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 This is an ongoing passion of mine. About 6-7 years ago, I decided to try to build a set of these (in EF or better) by date and mintmark including the major varieties, i.e. 1864 with and without "L", 1873 open and closed 3, etc. Most of what I bought was from eBay, but some coins were found in stores both in the USA and over here (also at coin shows) where I live (Switzerland). I think there is only one slabbed coin in the whole lot (1907, NGC MS-64). I still have several holes to fill, mostly due to the grade not being EF or better. Among the more notable purchases were these: 1872 -- found languishing in a dealer's dust bin at the Basel World Money Fair in 2005. I kept an image of the flip it was in, just in case someone didn't believe me that I paid an equivalent of US-$17 at the time for this coin which could be valued at between $200-$300 in spite of being cleaned at some point in the past. It is actually much nicer than it looks, the striations are in the metal and not scratches -- although it has a few of those, too: 1877 -- the key date, bought unslabbed from a friend in 2008 (I think) -- this friend (actually a friend of a friend of my wife's) had some coins which her father had left to her. Unfortunately, she had cleaned a lot of them, but this one was spared: We agreed on VG money, but I think it stands good chances of grading F-12 or thereabouts. Both of us were happy, she got a new SLR camera in the outcome, so I think we both got a good deal! You can look at the rest of my IHC's here: bobh's Indian Cents Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedeadpoint Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 This is one series I will have to tackle one day, but I'm waiting til I can tackle it with all the force I can muster. It deserves a lot of attention Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 Great coins and story to go with them Bob. You did good on both deals. Your 1872 appears to have a "woodgrain" planchette. The metals were not mixed thoroughtly when the plancett was first created. I really like that effect and look for it all the time. I only have two cents that have it. One Indian Head and one Lincoln. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 OK not really an Indian Head and not a very good picture but I'm posting it here anyway. Maybe someone wants to discuss what is probably the shortest production issue run of US coinage. 1858 Flying Eagle Cent - small letters variety Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buzkirk Posted December 20, 2011 Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 Just got this one Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2011 Nice Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 I have a number of Indian Head Cents that have been certified by ANACs. The old ANACs service was one of the best for Indian Heads for a number of years (my opinion). One of the advantages was their net grading which allowed you to get coins authenticated and net graded even though they had problems. I have some of those in my collection and I really like them. They are nice examples of what happens to coins as they move through more than 100 years of use and collection. Not particularly valuable but I enjoy having it as part of my collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Certainly not all of my Indians are damaged. I personally believe that the majority of coins like the Indian Head Cents have been cleaned either by collectors or folks just rubbing off the dirt to see what they had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 I have a few Indian Heads in slabs from companies such as PCI and NTC. These are actually accurately graded in my opinion. On top of that I purchased a few of them when the big "grading" wars were going on and got them for very low prices because a lot of folks were afraid to buy anything that wasn't PCGS or NGC or ANACs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve D'Ippolito Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 It's really hard to see any detail whatsoever on the coin (I can barely tell they are indian heads, I can't tell whether it's damaged or not, and I certainly cannot assess grade) when the overwhelming majority of the picture is just white slab. It leaves less than 100 pixels or so for the actual coin. My desktop icons are larger. It does look like you have a nice slab collection though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 It's really hard to see any detail whatsoever on the coin (I can barely tell they are indian heads, I can't tell whether it's damaged or not, and I certainly cannot assess grade) when the overwhelming majority of the picture is just white slab. It leaves less than 100 pixels or so for the actual coin. My desktop icons are larger. It does look like you have a nice slab collection though. I have developed a particular liking for this one. Hard to imagine how my pictures of this one would come out if it were in a slab: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Lovely brown hues! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted December 21, 2011 Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 For some reason I don't have a copper/bronze IHC - then again, I've never actually seen a nice common date piece around here either Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 It's really hard to see any detail whatsoever on the coin (I can barely tell they are indian heads, I can't tell whether it's damaged or not, and I certainly cannot assess grade) when the overwhelming majority of the picture is just white slab. It leaves less than 100 pixels or so for the actual coin. My desktop icons are larger. It does look like you have a nice slab collection though. It's part of the project that I'm working on. The main purpose of the shots with the slab in total is to get detailed listings including the certification numbers. At the same time I'm doing a number of things to adjust the white balance - so experimentation if you will. When I'm done with the slab images I have two choices. I can go back and rephotograph the coins, ignoring the slabs and using a lens/extension combo that gets me almost full frame coin only. OR I can go to the slab photos which are quite a bit larger than you see here and extract the coins from them. I'll probably go with the former as I'm attempting to get very good at imaging my collection. While I'm doing this, I decided to go ahead and post images here and in omnicoin in the hopes of fostering some discussion and getting other folks to post some of theirs. That seems to be working. And yes I actually like having a number of different slabs from different companies without consideration for the coin contained therein. One of the things that I was having quite a problem with on the full frame coin photos was the reflection on the plastic of the slab. I know there are ways to get around most of it and I've tried a few that I've read about but have had little success so far. I'm experimenting with a ring light right now. It results in a horrible image unless you crop out the entire slab which gets rid of the "picture" of the light in the plastic. It seems to work best with copper coins and circulated silver - so far. Maybe it would work with gold as well but I don't have any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 I have developed a particular liking for this one. Hard to imagine how my pictures of this one would come out if it were in a slab: Beautiful Bob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 For some reason I don't have a copper/bronze IHC - then again, I've never actually seen a nice common date piece around here either That looks like a nice 1863. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 21, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2011 Not using omnicoin for this image, I can get a lot more detail. I'm seriously considering creating my own website so that I can have more control of the quality of images such. This is an extract from the same image posted to omnicoin - see below 1881 F12 Large obv by UGotaHaveArt, on Flickr Using a better lense/extension combo I can get a far more detailed image of the surface of the coin. I'll be playing with that in the next few weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neweden Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 Here is my 1859, not a very good scan, the coin is better in hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 Looks like a nice '59. A lot of people don't realize that the older Indian Head Cents are thicker and weigh more than the brass coins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve D'Ippolito Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 Not using omnicoin for this image, I can get a lot more detail. Sure, if you have a high enough megapixel rating on the camera, cropping off the slab still leaves you with a large pixel count image. Unless for some reason the results are unsatisfactory; it might be less trouble for you to just do that unless you have a lens that will let the coin fill the entire picture as taken by the camera. I'm seriously considering creating my own website so that I can have more control of the quality of images such. That is a good idea, actually. I did something quite similar here: http://www.cyberian.com/us_coins/ with _some_ of the coins in my type set (including a flying eagle cent). [EDIT: I am adding more coins over time and just got done with the large cents; it is possible that by the time you read this, there will be Indian Head cents on this page, but as of now... it doesn't have them.] I complained about your slab pics because you started a post with something like "these coins are undamaged, however" and provided no real evidence of it. This is an extract from the same image posted to omnicoin - see below 1881 F12 Large obv by UGotaHaveArt, on Flickr Using a better lense/extension combo I can get a far more detailed image of the surface of the coin. I'll be playing with that in the next few weeks. I have to find some sort of lens that will let me take a pic of the coin such that it fills the picture. Right now I end up taking a picture that's about 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches and cropping down. I've only systematically photographed my ancient coins, and they ended up being about 1200x1200 pixels, typically, for a denarius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobh Posted December 22, 2011 Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 I did something quite similar here: http://www.cyberian.com/us_coins/new/ with _some_ of the coins in my type set (including a flying eagle cent). Great site of yours! (coins and pictures) ... That large cent (and the 20¢ piece) are absolutely stunning, although everything else is also definitely drool material. I have to find some sort of lens that will let me take a pic of the coin such that it fills the picture. Right now I end up taking a picture that's about 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches and cropping down. I've only systematically photographed my ancient coins, and they ended up being about 1200x1200 pixels, typically, for a denarius. Even the best lens will show a bit of distortion right around the edges of the image area (well, maybe the best lens that *I* could ever afford ). Best to crop them a little bit so as to minimize that, which is especially noticeable (annoying) when taking pictures of things that have straight edges such as coin slabs. Although this kind of distortion might not be as noticeable with unslabbed circular coins, there would probably also be focussing issues right at the edge of the screen. With smaller size coins, I don't get much higher useful resolution than 1200x1200, either, with my Nikon D60 and Nikkor macro lens. The newer cameras probably go up a lot higher than this nowadays. Even so, some of the pictures I took years ago when I only had a Coolpix with 5 MP came out better at resolutions of about 800x800 than with my newer camera which has 10 MP. I think a lot really depends more on the lighting and proper settings, plus being able to compensate for some things in the software after the shot is taken. Be sure to check out our Numismatic Photography forum here if you haven't done so already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art1.2 Posted December 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2011 This is an ongoing passion of mine. About 6-7 years ago, I decided to try to build a set of these (in EF or better) by date and mintmark including the major varieties, i.e. 1864 with and without "L", 1873 open and closed 3, etc. Most of what I bought was from eBay, but some coins were found in stores both in the USA and over here (also at coin shows) where I live (Switzerland). I think there is only one slabbed coin in the whole lot (1907, NGC MS-64). I still have several holes to fill, mostly due to the grade not being EF or better. Among the more notable purchases were these: 1872 -- found languishing in a dealer's dust bin at the Basel World Money Fair in 2005. I kept an image of the flip it was in, just in case someone didn't believe me that I paid an equivalent of US-$17 at the time for this coin which could be valued at between $200-$300 in spite of being cleaned at some point in the past. It is actually much nicer than it looks, the striations are in the metal and not scratches -- although it has a few of those, too: 1877 -- the key date, bought unslabbed from a friend in 2008 (I think) -- this friend (actually a friend of a friend of my wife's) had some coins which her father had left to her. Unfortunately, she had cleaned a lot of them, but this one was spared: We agreed on VG money, but I think it stands good chances of grading F-12 or thereabouts. Both of us were happy, she got a new SLR camera in the outcome, so I think we both got a good deal! You can look at the rest of my IHC's here: bobh's Indian Cents Bob, I looked over your gallery and WOW! Great coins and your photographs are very much inline with what I'm working to get to for my coins. Nice work. I like your gallery and the organization that it allows. Is that your own software or a commercial package? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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