RWB

Why, why, why.....? You propose to spend $40 on each for a plastic holder for coins worth face value? Who or what is promoting this insanity? End of Rant.... Hate seeing people get pulled into wasting time and resources.

$2,800 in 5/4 condition. This one, about $1,500 to 1,900.

It was and is called a "three cent piece" or "three cent silver." Trime is a modern aberration not used contemporary with the coin. (It sticks to the teeth like oily cheap peanut butter.) The failed silver coin worth 20-cents was called a "twenty-cent piece" and never a "double dime" -- except, in the first proposed 20-cent piece in 1806-7 it was officially called a "double dime."

None of the quarters are from doubled dies.

Greetings! The coin in your magnified photos was not struck from a doubled die. What you see is called "machine doubling" or "mechanical doubling. This is caused by the planchet not properly seating between the dies at the instant the coin is struck. It is very common and has no added value. All of the quarters are ordinary 1964 pieces. They are not "transitional" in any sense of the word and are never called that by coin collectors. Each quarter contains about $4.70 in silver value. They have no added collector premium and sending any to be independently graded would be a total waste of $30 to $40 in fees and postage.

Excellent perception!

But which parking garage? Will there be flush plumbing this time? Will there be a special "Thieves' Holiday" or maybe a razor wire enclosure for members who make and sell counterfeits"? Merely wondering.....

I do too! But the coin is U-G-L-L-L-L-Y !

Here is the internal Treasury Department letter summarizing the bids to strike 27,737 bronze 3-inch award medals for the Columbian Exposition of 1892-93. The winning bidder, Scovill Mfg Company, was still making medals in May 1897!

It's just a cleaned and damaged proof. Poor Ike...first the hair, now his dignity.

Why? It could be preference, like Sandon says, or it could be technical. Details of coin designs are frequently altered to increase die life, improve striking, reduce minting pressure, etc. No one outside the technical folks every know about these.

I don't consider either of those values "heavy hitters" in today's market. No, I don't buy coins in this price range but the TPG's routinely grade coins of this value. This is another illustration of the damage created when condition and "value" and linked during grading of a coin. The coin should be accurately described as it presently exists. The free market will determine its "value" at the time of sale.

When photographing anything for record purposes, you must be uniform in all technical respects but especially color balance (18% gray) and neutral background. You are not making "nice pictures," you are recording the object for identification.

It's a different type font, that's all. (PS: There is no secret place where "U-legs" are kept for some future use.)

"Key date" is simply a coin that is more difficult to find than most in that series. A couple of generations ago, one could assemble a complete set of Lincoln cents from circulation - except for a small number of coins that were difficult to locate in change....1914-D, 1931-S, 1909-S VDB. These were keys to completing the set. Coin dealers often paid nice premiums (over face) for compete sets, so it could be profitable to assemble sets with the keys from circulation then sell the sets.

Chantilly Expo is mostly large open space in 2 buildings - strictly a drive-to venue - surrounded by fast food, as you describe. Now that Metro Rail is open to Dulles airport and beyond the Reston vicinity has potential, but at present there is no building with a large open area plus smaller meeting rooms. It also more drive-to if you want wide hotel selection. ANA simply doe not have much "creative culture." Management plods along, members plod along (I'm a plodding member, too), and the whole thing just squishes mud.

That crochet quilt looks an awful lot like a crocheted dog!

He used the new "Diet Coin Slabs" available on special order.....

National Harbor is not in a city. It is immediately adjacent to Washington DC. ('Dillon Rule' states are a problem. Local jurisdictions have little control over business incentives. Virginia is an exception because of the broad authority given Fairfax County and its contiguous neighbors. But that only works in Northern VA, and there are no suitable venues for ANA there.)

Luster breaks are really just filling, or smoothing of sharper ridges. They would appear darker in tone from greater diffusion of light.

ANA is too small to interest the normal convention centers. National Harbor just outside Washington DC would be an excellent venue, if ANA had the **** to do something a little different and up-scale. It doesn't matter which parking garage in Rosemont ANA uses....they're all the same cookie cutter clutter.

A coin is simply an irregular reflective metal object. Parts of the surface will reflect light directly into a camera's lens and, assuming a 'average' exposure, produce blown-out over exposed areas. Other parts reflect all of the light away from the lens and appear black, yet other parts reflect different proportions of light to the lens. This is based both on gross surface geometry - surface relief changes - and microsurface smoothness. A polished part of the surface will diffuse less light and thus appeal both higher contrast and visually sharper. One of the little coin photo tricks is to pretend the coin is a portrait, and arrange your light so that it is lit from the upper face of the profile. You can 'smooth' the tones by directing light and different angles to 'open' the dark portions, and 'flatten' overly bright areas. Master this - lighting first - then consider if you really can benefit from new equipment.

Here's an example that popped up ATT (across the tracks). https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1086805/what-a-difference-lighting-makes Both photos are awful, but the photographer was trying for improvement and the visibility of detail is much improved.

Yep. Bank tellers use stacks and little plastic trays with interval markings to count their coin cash.

Optical zoom or software "zoom?" Look at the camera lenses sideline photographers use at football games this weekend. Those are optical. If software version were any good, do you think they would be lugging that stuff around? Look closely at the TV coverage. The camera lenses are all optical which is why the coach picking his nose image is sharp from across the stadium. Phone cameras are digital toys intended to amuse users and make their photos appear routinely competent. They can produce nice 4k video when viewed on a 4k system. But put them on a 256k pro system and they turn to mush. The whole point is to understand what your camera can and cannot do well, then work with its strengths. As Kurt noted earlier, if you turn off all the cell phone automatic , you might be able to make a nice photo -- after a lot of experimenting. To anyone thinking of getting a DSLR for coin photos, first use a cell phone or a cheap digital camera to nail down and understand lighting coin both raw and in plastic tombs. Once you have that zeroed in, then buy a good 24 meg camera, a close focusing zoom lens, and a set of auto extension tubes for detail photos. OH -- an practice -- a lot!