Jeremy468

I got my photo setup from Ray and practicing with a few pictures.... though I am still practicing and I have not done anything with the photo software yet... I feel these are much better representations of the coin.... I am guessing all will still say it has been cleaned... but what grade might you all attribute to this other than that?

Great! I have several full steps so getting adequate detail is important too. Look good! Thanks again!

Thanks! It seems this is the better way to go and I have reached out.

As a fellow Hoosier, tell me more... how do we do that

Hilarious! But yes everyone, the fingerprints are definitely on the coins. I guess I am blessed with unique toning. The major one was actually part of a collection, the McClaren Collection, so I suppose I have evidence in case there are any pertinent criminal investigations.

well, my best for that year are just dimes also... one with FB

I am just continuing to work on my personal grading skills before advancing to again buying more expensive coins at some point that are not already graded. So these two were graded in the same lot and the second one earned a +. In my very amateur opinion though, the 64 actually looks better and the 64+ seems to have more distracting marks. My understanding is the coins are reviewed by at least two graders, so does anyone have an eye to discern why the 64+ earned that over the 64? Thanks again for sharing your experience!!

I purchased both of them, and they are both 62s. In the NGC photo (which rarely seem to be the quality I am looking for), part of it can faintly be seen.

I received two more Morgans today, one each from NGC and PCGS. Both of them have a fingerprint on them, though the one on the NGC is clearly more pronounced. So I remember watching NGC's videos explaining the grading process and they were handling coins without gloves. So the question is, do they really do that? Could the print be a result of their handling?

Thank you all for the suggestions and insights. The primary purpose is for working towards being able to create good pictures that accurately represent the coins, or at least close to it. So the scope setup is probably more than I need for my purposes right now. I agree that the lighting is a significant issue in balancing proper color including brilliance and reflectiveness yet without glare, and seems to differ based on coin composition, while still capturing It seems for now one of the USB scopes will end up being what I get, though from briefly looking probably one more in the 100-150 price range. I saw several that have the flexible LED lights similar to those on Ray's but of course smaller, and those would seem to be helpful. A related question, because I have seen both opinions, is whether the pictures are best taken against a white or black background. Or maybe whichever is the contrasting color?

Does anyone have any recommendations for a decent, yet reasonably priced scope and/or camera setup for both viewing coins and photographing them?

Another I was looking for grading opinions on. The damage is quite explicit here - looks like someone was quite angry with the lady. I presume that will have a much more substantial impact on value, but again just working to build a better understanding of impacts of damage on value depending on how pronounced they are. Of course probably worthless to many long time collectors on here, but for those newer and/or on more limited budgets who are not going to go out and buy an AU or MS next week, what might be reasonably expected? Thanks again for any input!

Just looking on grading opinions on this piece, and also how much that ding on the reverse at the rim might affect its value. Thanks!

So what would you and others recommend for reliable value/pricing information? Before finding online price guides, I began using Redbook and got my 2022 copy practically as soon as it was available. It seemed to be a good starting point, but then came across the pricing at usacoinbook.com, PCGS, and NCG. Sometimes they are roughly in line with each other and with Redbook, other times of course one or two differ significantly from the others. Sometimes Redbook is higher, other times it is lower. Of course Redbook is already a few months out of date once a new edition becomes available which had led me to try to rely on the online sites more, in addition to thinking that the prices were influenced by auction prices and supposed to represent retail prices. I understand that dealers use greysheet, so I paid for an online copy of that a few weeks ago and it was my impression that it was more representative of value to dealers or what they would pay. The online copy is a bit cumbersome to use, but of course the printed copy would surely be easier to use, but obviously pricey. On top of that, I purchased CoinManage last week to keep inventory of my growing collection, and of course it has its own default values. With all of these, the largest differences most often occur with higher grades in addition to gold and larger silver coins like Morgans. So any advice would be greatly appreciated, and I would suspect that most new collectors would appreciate the information also. Just an example for a 1926 Quarter Eagle in AU50: Redbook $400, USA $507, PCGS $550, $500, GS June $370, CoinManage $350.