Mikhail2400

In another post I asked about what folks used for magnifying coins for pics and stuff. I was persuaded that a digital scope wasnt needed for coins but i still wanted one. Instead of buying the one I wanted i just spent $22 on a cheapo to play around with. I can see where a professional working at NGC might need a high mag device for inspections but for someone like me its not really needed. Its fun to play around with anyways. Heres a close up shot of the wing and yeah its cut up pretty bad

About a week ago I finally got around to opening two plastic tubes of wheat pennies from my dads collection. i had opened one of the tubes just to see it was wheat pennies but to my surprise the other tube was noting but Indian Cents. They were all low grade VG and some worse but it was a pretty cool surprise.

It sold at $28.05 and was from someone called estatejewelerycoinsandcollectibles. I was surprised it went more than a few dollars above spot. If you search toned silver eagles the first page of coins is sad. Theres every color of the rainbow and its just a waste. I would be surprised if more than 2-3 of them on that first page were actually toned naturally.

Where im from, small town in south east GA, if the penny you found was heads up you kept it and if it was tails up you threw it over your shoulder, for luck. Guess its no more nuts than any other 'Good Luck' penny ritual. You mentioned wondering if the 2013 penny would be considered bad luck and it reminded me of my father. You see after a pretty good life he passed away on Friday 13th September 2013 at 1;13pm and for those of you who didnt know this 1;13pm is 13:13 military time . So after all those 13s coming together on that day ive since wondered about the ole 13 rumors. Yeah I dont mess with 13 much anymore. Wasnt trying to put a damper on your blog just thought I would share a story on how one number can become so large in a persons life. Mike

It overlaps the 0 after the two but as you said is under the last 0. Its strange thats for sure

LOL, I wanted to keep the old joint when I went in for my second hip replacement on the same hip but like Mr.Bill I figured they would think I was a little bit weird or gross.

Sorry it took so long to post the close-up shots. To be honest they dont really show much. The wing shot does not, to me, show if its a scratch, gouge or whatever. Now the close-up of the entire face/hair may show to some of the more experienced members the levels of wear that were questioned. I took a close-up of the cheek but it didnt show anything at that close of a level other than to make the scratches look huge. The discoloration only appears when you have the surrounding coin to compare it to so I didnt include it. Plus I couldnt include it with the other two shots without going over the 4.88mb limit. Anyway here they are. P.S. I dont know why that shot of the wing appeared upside down on here, it comes in right side up whenever I open it. Sorry

Ive looked at everything from jewelers loupes to laboratory microscopes and everything in between. Sure my phone will go up to 8x but the pictures leave alot to be desired in the really close up shots. The digital microscopes look the most promising to me and like everything else in this world you can spend as little or as much as you want on one. They come with or without screens in varying sizes but the most common problem ive seen reported was their lack of room between the scope and whats being viewed. After reading thru alot of reviews the brand Dino-Lite seems to have some good products ranging from $1000-$100 and they come without a screen which isnt a deal breaker by any means. I would prefer a good scope with no screen than a mediocre scope with a mediocre screen. So now ive rambled on about a subject I know nothing about. Now how about some of you share what you use for viewing and photographing your coins. Thanks, Mike

Thanks for the comments and for explaining why you thought it should or shouldnt grade at those levels. The explanations really help someone new to judging coins to understand the process better. The photos were taken with the top of the coin case removed so there is no case marring in the way. The first time I photographed it scratches in the case, while invisible to the naked eye, were readily visible so I opened the case and reshot them. I will try and get some better shots of the left wing, cheek and the hair which show those areas in a better light. While I was hoping for a low end MS score Im overall satisfied with your thoughts on the coin

I have a good bit of titanium in my right hip joint, Neat coin you got there

First time seeing one in titanium but APMEX, JM Bullion, JD Bullion etc etc have bars pressed in that same pattern or close to it in metals like copper, silver, platinum and palladium. Its an easy way to stack precious and semi-precious metals in pre-weighed amounts for those who prefer to keep some or all of their assets on hand

Ok this coin I have higher hopes for than the 1921 I posted the other day. So take a look and give me your best estimate on grade. All I ask is that you be honest and dont worry that ill need a safe space if you dont like it.

Well at the moment the highest bid for that coin is a whopping $0.99. Might be a new record.

Saw this one on Ebay and it just looked wrong to me. Theres no way this coin toned like this naturally is there?

To be honest I didnt have high hopes for this one.

Thanks James and yeah I too was wondering if it might have been cleaned after I saw the scratches all going in one direction on it

Love your coin! Comparing mine to yours I think I would have to be very lucky to get a MS61 but hey a man can hope eh. Whizzed? Would that be when someone has used some type of power brush to clean it?

Due to my lack of a nice camera to photograph these coins I thought I would try something else. What ive done is photograph the coin twice using different backgrounds. I photographed the coin once with a black background and the second time with a white background. I was a bit surprised at the difference the backgrounds made and I hope it helps show the coin better. So give me your opinions on whether the backgrounds made enough difference to matter and if you will take a guess at where you think this coin would grade at. Thanks, Mike

My bad, didnt really look at pic as was in a hurry to go get granddaughter, just loaded first one i saw Good catch

Here it is

I just recalled another one of those dollars from the 2000 series which is collectable. Its called the Wounded Eagle dollar and is supposedly fairly common. The eagle has a line thru its breast which looks sort of like an arrow and once you know what to look for its easy to see with the naked eye

I saw a video the other day about the Sacagawea coin, specifically the 2000 coins, which said there were several versions of that coin minted. One version was the Cherrios Dollar which went out in, of course, Cheerios boxes. Supposedly there were a few other versions with different coloring, all golden but of different hues and materials. I tried to look up the video I watched but there were quite a few of them on the subject on YouTube. They claim the Cheerios Dollar is worth $5k

Now that is very interesting and just goes to show that you couldnt trust the news back then any more than you can today. Even if the F.E. 1858s did have that 'small amount of gold' it wouldnt matter very much as my entire hoard of 1858s consists of the one shown above. I find the Flying Eagle coins to be very interesting. I cant think of any other US coin with an eagle on the obverse side and I also believe they had the shortest production run of the one cent coins. The F.E. coins look to be a great place to start for someone fairly new to this hobby such as myself. All though I wont be buying the 1856 PR64 on Ebay for $23,500 any time in the foreseeable future.

Very nicely said and makes alot of sense. I noticed grading the flying eagle in the 2-3 range was pretty easy and some other coins which should be in the VG to F range were about the same. Attempting to do the same with some Morgans I have which I think are in the mid MS ranges is a completely different story though. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. Mike

Would you care to say why you are so against such a seemingly handy tool?