Always Make Certain the Image in a Coin Auction Matches the Coin Being Sold!

[TomB]

Howdy everyone.

 

I tried to post this thread over the course of three nights earlier this week, however, each night I tried I got that annoying "board stall" that wouldn't let me proceed past "My Home" during login. So, since I wanted to post the thread near the third anniversary of receiving the coin, I ended up posting it at PCGS. Don't worry about posting something here that will overlap with what was posted at PCGS; my thread was buried mighty quick there.

 

Anyway, I wrote a thread about this coin on the PCGS boards when I bought it in June of 2002 but now that I have a very capable camera I thought I would start another thread and actually show the coin off in it.

 

I had been cruising the Washington quarter section of ebay when a title caught my attention and the title said something like "Spectacular rainbow...". Well, I had to look and when the auction page opened there was an awful, dark brown, no luster, low end MS Washington staring at me. I was about to close the page when I also noticed that the Washington in the image was a 1948-S and the title of the auction stated it was a 1947-S.

 

To those who study the Washington quarter series, the 1947-S stands out as one of the best issues for a combination of strike, luster, toning and overall quality. So, I thought that the auction image might be incorrect. To determine this, I copied the URL of the image embedded in the auction and changed the URL from its "1948S" text to "1947S" and then hit enter. That did the trick as an image of a wonderfully toned 1947-S appeared in front of me.

 

Fortunately for me, we don't have to turn this thread into a hypothetical ethics thread because I immediately emailed the seller to tell him that he had the wrong URL up in his auction and that he would get no action on his coin. Two days later he did not respond and the image was still wrong so I emailed him again. My wife asked me why I would do such a thing since I desperately wanted the coin in the image, and, she had a point. D'oh! Anyway, the seller neither replied nor did he change the image.

 

I put in my high bid and waited....waited....waited. You know, those one or two seconds after a last moment bid is put in can be very nerve-racking! The auction closed and I was the only bidder on the coin at $42 including shipping. Of course, waiting for the coin to arrive was also a torture as I had these visions that the seller would back out of the deal since he received so little for such a nice coin. At least in this case the seller didn't seem to care and I have been very pleased and guilt-free since.

 

Recently, I purchased a Nikon D70 and I have been taking pictures of some (actually, many) of my coins and this coin was one of them to be imaged. The images are fairly accurate and the coin is in a PCGS MS66 holder although it is a true MS68 except for a scratch through Washington's head! I guess that that is okay, though, as if it were graded MS68 I definitely would not have kept it.

 

Here are the images. The slight line that appears to be on the jawline is on the plastic, but the deep gash through the skull is actually on the coin. The obverse color looks remarkably similar in-hand and the portrait has a very light steely-pink hue to it. The coin has loads of curb appeal! The reverse has to be seen in-hand to be appreciated as it has no marks at all to speak of and the color is generally an intermingled dappling of violet, green and red over a steely-orange background. It is way cool.

 

This coin is the perfect object lesson in checking out all the details of any listing you start and to also dig a little if a listing makes you think there might be more to it. By the way, the coin is worth many multiples of what I paid.

[nwcs]

Superb coin. I like it. I've also done the change-the-url thing on images when they don't seem to match. But none have turned out like yours. Still, I'm quite surprised that the seller wouldn't even reply to emails before but had no issues going through at the stated price.

[XpipedreamR]

It's really stunning, especially the obverse!

[TomB]

Thank you for the kind words about the coin, it truly is a wonderful piece to look at. In fact, I often take it with me in my "A Box" to shows because of its visual impact and the story behind it.

 

The seller was apparently a full-time coin dealer who sold it through his brick-and-mortar shop. I have no idea why he cared so little for it.

[EZ_E]

Wow! TomB, I've never been a big toning-buff but I really do like the colors on this coin. Very nice indeed! Very good object lesson, too. Thanks.

[TomB]

Hey, Victor, wait until I do another post with multiple toned Washingtons in it. You'll be pretty sick of them in no time. I have the feeling the board will be sorry I bought a new camera!

[EZ_E]

I still need to read that thread. I kind of avoided it since I didn't want to get confused with another brand that I'm going to get. However, I do believe that I've done reconsidered. Actually, I don't believe that I will get bored with your photos since I'm interested in learning more. I'm set on immulating JamminJ, however, since he has such consistently good photos. I saved the following quote for future references:

 

 

Quote:

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Can you please tell me how you get such nice pictures, i.e., camera, setup, etc? I am looking for the right equipment to make pictures like these of my coins. I would appreciate it very much.

 

Marv Finnley

 

 

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I use a Canon Powershot G5 with a macro lens. I think the lens is more important than the particular camera. For lighting I have a pair of Ott lights placed parallel to one another. I rest my wrist on one of the lights putting the lens about 6 inches over the coins. Take a couple of photos of each side and keep only the best. Next import to Photoshop for cropping and perhaps a bit of tweaking with the ligght balance.

 

Voila! Coin pictures.

[Hoot]

Nice job Tom! Great photos and an even better story (and an even better coin!) Keep 'em comin'!

 

Hoot

[toyonakataro]

Another coin you should put up on eBay with no reserve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice coin

[XpipedreamR]

Another coin you should put up on eBay with no reserve

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, and make sure you screw the pictures up, too

[kryptonitecomics]

Nice...Tom.....nice!!!!!!

 

Great price and I agree...certainly worth multiples of what you paid!!!!

[BankNote1]

I don't give a whit about a Wash. quarter but I do like the way the Blues are comming out in your photos. I can't get the blue color to come through in my photos. How are you lighting the coin? Are you putting the light to the side or straight down on the coin or what? Are you using some sort of light box? Any help would be wonderful!!!!!

[TomB]

Toyo, I was just thinking of offering you these coins in a private transaction at about 10% more than I paid. That would be fair, right? However, since you want me to put them up on ebay...

 

Monty, I wish there were some things I could tell you that would make this appear to be complex, but there aren't. I simply put a white sheet of paper on my desk, opened up two Ott lights, screwed the camera onto the tripod, took a white balance reading with my camera and then dropped the coin onto the desk and snapped the image. This takes less than thirty seconds to set up and I took about 100 other coin shots after this in a total of about ten minutes. The Ott lights were positioned at about 9:00 and 1:00 o'clock in reference to the coin and I used a dedicated 60mm lens.

 

When I have taken shots with film I have had to use an 80A blue filter in order to block the yellow spectrum and achieve realistic blues in coin images.

[jom]

Great story! I had a similar experience but this time it was the CORRECT picture that was very poor. It was a toned 13P Ty2 Buff that I got cheap (IMO)...relatively speaking anyway

 

jom

[BankNote1]

Tom - Thanks for the info! I have used the ott lights before I switched to Photo lights on stands. I didn't get a new camera though. The Nikon D70 is out of my reach at this time. I am using a Sony Mavica. It has a light ajustment but it isn't an SLR!

[AlixTCat]

I like the coin. You are a lucky man!

 

I use the Ott lights for lighting my coins for photographing. I think they provide great light. Photo lights on stands would me my next purchase. I saw a nice copy stand for $115 that I have my eye on.

 

 

 

 

 

Jonathan

[HaydenTubbs]

Sweet coin!

[BelgiumLt12-migration]

nice coin, newbie just wanted to post something, but I still like the coin.

[AlixTCat]

nice coin, newbie just wanted to post something, but I still like the coin.

 

Hi, me! Welcome to the board. This is a great place to share your coins, see others' coins and talk coins. Did I mention coins?

 

Anyway, welcome.

 

Jonathan