Post Your Slab Shots

astrorat · January 19, 2020 9:13AM

@drddm said:

@astrorat said:
After a little trimming by the bandsaw, here is an 1809 O.112 and her 49 friends off for some new plastic garments. A dozen more friends will hop on the bus as well.

Nice bunch of girls you got there astrorat....I hope you get the highest graded plastic garments for them

Dave

Confession ... that shot was from a little over a year ago. All went in for California plastic attire and came back perfectly sized. Many took a vacation to New Jersey and over three-quarters came back with green oval enhancements.

astrorat · January 19, 2020 11:50AM

morgansforever · January 21, 2020 1:18AM

RAB · January 21, 2020 12:40PM

Great thread and great photos! I agree with the OP. I think slab shots can play a really useful role today, especially as more activity moves online.

Starting with the premise that there’s really no substitute for viewing a coin in hand (whether in person or via a trusted set of eyes), I’ll bet many of us find ourselves making purchasing decisions based on “secondary” information. Sometimes that includes a comprehensive and accurate description, but often it just means pictures.

For me, a good slab shot can provide a sense of what a coin looks like in hand, especially if is taken with the aim of bringing out the coin's luster. Even then, however, a slab photo is usually not able to convey the "whole picture". Other types of photos, such as those designed to show off, say, the colors on a reflective coin when tilted in the light, can provide additional information that can be very valuable when making decision to purchase. But, in terms of sheer "what should I expect the coin to look like", I personally have found slab shots to be the best indicator and the least likely to result in disappointment.

For example, the slab shots below are of the Morgan dollar I use as my avatar.

I purchased this coin out of a Heritage Auction in the early days of my return to collecting (at the time I was focused solely on Morgan Dollars) simply because I liked the look. I was quite pleased when I received the coin, as the overall "look" was pretty much just as I was expecting from the auction shot of the NGC slab. It turns out there was more chatter in the fields than I was expecting, but I know lighting can have a significant effect on how well those show up in a photo.

I was more than pleasantly surprised, however, by color and reflectivity, neither of which show up well in a slab photo. The toning is fairly thick, especially on the reverse, but the fields are quite reflective and the coin really comes alive in the light- the TrueView below does a really nice job of providing a sense of this.

That said, if I had only seen the TrueView, I would probably have been disappointed when I received the coin!

So what's my point? I guess simply that in order to get as close as possible to an accurate photographic representation of a coin, more than one type of photo (and lighting setup) is often necessary. That said, I think a good slab shot can go a long way towards achieving this!