maybe it's time to expand my collecting parameters

My coin collecting mostly consists of buying as beautiful and eye-appealing coins as I can. I usually do this in the confines of some over-arching goal like assembling a whole set, short set, year set, thematic set etc. I say usually because some of my coin purchases are not for any set but just because I love the design. Examples of this would be coins like my Dolly Madison commem with her wonderful bust on the obv and the willow tree and gardened home on the reverese--another would be my 1917 T1 standing Liberty quarter. I have no desire to complete these series but I thouroughly enjoy having these coins in my collection.

Each purchase generally gives me 3 moments of thrill. I always get a charge--possibly the biggest charge- from winning a desired coin at auction. The second thrill of course is when the coin arrives in the mail and I get it in hand with my loupe for the first time. My third thrill is adding the coin to my Registry and filling a slot in a set. I know many here are different and immediately register a coin upon winning it-even before being in possesion of it. Others here collect and have no interest in the registry. This is just how I enjoy the hobby.

I'm starting to feel that maybe I'm missing one aspect of the collecting experience though.........

That would be the photographing and sharing of images of my coins. I have outdated equipment but the zoom 10x is pretty good on my primary camera and a 20x zoom camcorder also can take stills so I do a servicable job. What is really lacking are my lighting set-up and also any photo editing or presentation skills.

I've looked at other member's like Ghermann and his themed collage of veteran coins and I think on the fun it must be to pull out coins from his collection and image them and work with them.

What really brought this to a head was my latest mercury dime. I continue to build and rebuild this set with the prettiest coins I can find. I just snagged a truly unbelievable coin and it arrived today. Even nicer than the list photos, I can say I think I got a steal evn though I paid 2x list value for it.True turquoise, aquamarines, violet magentas--just astounding with bold strike for an S mint and overall subtle golden tones--just fabulous ( can you tell I REALLY like this coin??)

Anyhow, I can't get a decent picture of this little dime which shows the boldness of color, luster and strike details. I tried with a big outdoor bulb in a desk lamp--I tried outdoor soft evening sunlight--I tried my normal desk halogen I use for my Walker pics--I tried a plain old lightbulb and the stovetop lamp even. None truly capture everything well.

A really good tilt gives me the colors...straight on gives the luster but washes out the color and lessens the FSB, etc etc..

So I think it is time to expand my coin collecting to include some coin photography equipment made in the 21st century.

For what it's worth--my 1943-S MS67 FSB Mercury obv ( the reverse is 10x even more astounding but my pics are horrible)..I only wish you all could see this coin in hand--what a treat..

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