Luminosity in a coin

[MikeKing]

The word came to me while studying this coin under different conditions, and strangely enough, I saw it used for a coin in the recent Heritage auction, so maybe it's not so original. But I have to say that word really describes this coin. I thought I'd share it here.

 

I just recieved this coin from Mike Printz (Larry Whitlow) (it might still be listed on their site). First, I would like to apologize to him because the photograph he took of this coin is truly accurate, and indeed, shows off it's great luster, and is very different from what I portray here. The photograph I took tonight shows off another aspect of it's beauty, and it is very unlike the one displayed on the internet when it was for sale.

 

One of the best ways to assess a coin, in my opinion, is not just using a good incandescent light, but by also viewing it in different kinds of light, such as sunlight, flourescent light etc... (I think Lucy Bop said something about sunlight being a photographers best friend, or something like that). A good way to do this, and learn to appreciate beauty, I think, is to just leave the coin on your desk or some sort of flat surface, below eye level, in a room, so that throughout the day and night with different lighting conditions you will see how the coin 'changes'. This coin has been sitting on top of my work bench in a workroom that has a huge bush growing lavishly in front of the window filtering out direct sunlight. A storm is approaching Connecticut tonight and storm warnings are being issued on television. I turned the light on in the workroom before shutting the window, and the luminosity of this 50C piece laying ontop of my bench was just wild! I wondered if I could catch it with photography, and indeed I did.

 

It was about 6:30 PM when I took these shots, and the window light was darkened to the point of almost a twilight because of the clouds and the luxuriant bush blocking the window. The only artificial lighting was an energy saver flourescent light bulb in a stand-up lamp, several feet away, in the far corner of the room.

 

I've been watching this coin for a little over a day now, right there on top of the workbench, catching different kinds of light, and each and every time I look at it, the main determining word I can find that knits it all together, is luminosity. The coin is essentially luminous. In the prescence of an external light source, of course!

 

While this is basically a very silvery coin with great luster in the protected areas, surrounded by a nice golden rim toning, there obviously is a very thin coat of golden/brown almost pinkish toning covering the whole coin such that given the particular circumstances I spoke of above, the luminescence of this coin made it glow in this particular color.

 

 

[IGWT]

If I didn't know any better, Michael, I'd say that you're in love.

[EZ_E]

Great post. Varying lighting conditions truly alter the way we perceive a coin's surface. To recognize this is a MUST to be able to evaluate or to photograph a coin properly.

[Hoot]

 

Luminous mind, luminous coin...

 

Hoot

[supertooth]

Mike King----Great post! One of the things that I have learned is not to trust pictures. Nothing against anyone here or anywhere else but, IMHO, there is no way to be absolutely sure----until the coin is in hand. With decent scans or digital pictures you can get an idea. But, only in hand, can you get a confirmation of your opinions. And the lighting has everything to do with what you see. I take my coins almost everywhere, when I get them, to look at them. Direct sunlight or all complete darkness under just a goose neck lamp. I tilt the coins at all angles. Look at them close up and far away. With and without a loupe. Sure, I can basically tell whether I like a coin or not---from a short look at the coin. But I love to take it everywhere and in different lighting conditions. Sometimes you are surprised at what you find out about the coin---and about yourself.

Once I bought a 21D Walker in an ANACS Fine12 holder. The coin was a buy--it--now. And I could not wait to snap it up. It was a very respectable VF20 coin that I swore that ANACS had undergraded. Well, I took that coin to a Balto. Show to get it crossed to an NGC holder. NO GO. So I took it home---looked at it some more. Cracked that coin out of the holder and sent it in raw to NGC a full year later. Only time that I have ever done these antics. Well, the coin got the BB treatment. So, I gave up still not understanding why NGC would not slab it. Then one night in bed I was looking at another coin under a bedstand single bulb light. It hit me like a brick. I had tilted the coin under that particular light. Got up and went to the safe and got out the 21D. Sure enough----there was a hairline scratch---not visible to the naked eye---and one that I had missed many times with the loupe [A nice Hastings]. It ran horizontally right across the middle of the coin. It was an old scratch---very light and basically toned over. But it was there. I was really quite shocked and amazed----that I had not seen it before this particular night. I still like the coin. It sits proudly in my VF set of Walkers---- original color matches the adjacent coins. I cannot see the invisible scratch----it looks great in the old Whitman album. But a plus for NGC----they caught it twice. And a plus for ANACS too---they had downgraded the coin from a VF20 to a Fine12. Dummy Bob took over a year to catch the problem. It is all in where and how you look at a coin. It is also about the assets and abilities of the grader. It has been a few years since this happened. I am better now----but still learning. Bob [supertooth]