has become one of my favorite parts of ...

coin collecting. Coins have turned into a passion with me. I guess that is not so unusual when I consider who I'm talking to. But, I have always been a closet photographer and shooting coins to represent them in their best light is an art. It has take me months, but I think I do a great job. Once in a while I get a camera reflection off the coin... I'm working on that.

I use a small Casio older 5 meg digital with a 510 mb memory chip. Although I have found many lighting techniques that work well, for circulated coins I have settled on a standard 75 watt, soft white light bulb in a clip on desk lamp. I put the coin on a clean sheet of white paper, angle the lamp enough to bring out the surface texture of the coin, but not so angled as to create a huge shadow from the coin on the opposite side. Set the camera on (flash off, macro, auto focus, incandescent light) get as close as I can to maximize the size of the image and shoot when auto focus beeps. Download and print. I use very high resolution and reduce it as needed depending on where I print it. For Proofs and new un-circulated coins I add more brilliant light, usually from 3 angles. I use the same camera settings and get beautiful pictures. Here's a sample... I'm using this particular coin because I'm an ex-Jarhead. "Semper Fi" Steve