My take on capturing coin edges lettering or reeds

coinsarefun

I decided to get a little deeper into using a flashlight lens to capture edge lettering or reeding.
There has been. few attempts by me and the edges never looked flat to the coin.
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I tried different size coins below and found out that dimes and quarters work. Getting up to a half
dollar the edges seem
to angle upward......not good. So my take away is yes I have the camera on manual adjustment
and like I thought standard
2" dia. flashlight lens only are good up to quarter size coins. Actually to be picky a 2" dial lens is good only for a dime....
.....need bigger for the rest
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I'm going to purchase a few larger diameter lens and post my findings here. I have a 3" medal that I need to capture the edge lettering so need to find a big are flashlight lens
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If anyone has more to add please do. I know at least a few know these tricks
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Below are images cropped to show including lens. Then cropped.
I also found out that this is an excellent way of capturing toning of pl coins!
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Hydrant

I've been studying reeds on quarters and lettered edges on half dollars lately with a 5x loop. Interesting pastime....but frustrating also. Carry on my friend!

ɹoʇɔǝlloɔ

what a cool idea - thanks for sharing this

LanceNewmanOCC

MUCH better results stef. kudos and nice coins!

coinsarefun

@LanceNewmanOCC said:
MUCH better results stef. kudos and nice coins!

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.Thanks Lance. I had a feeling it had something to do with the diameter of lens.
My husband found a 3" dia. and tried the die stamped one. I still need larger prolly 4-4.5" dia.
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LanceNewmanOCC

@coinsarefun said:

@LanceNewmanOCC said:
MUCH better results stef. kudos and nice coins!

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.Thanks Lance. I had a feeling it had something to do with the diameter of lens.
My husband found a 3" dia. and tried the die stamped one. I still need larger prolly 4-4.5" dia.

holy flippin crap. i was trying to find this thread exhaustively from my comments made link and you literally posted this which gave me the notification pop-up to save me from a lot of searching. TYVM! and i award you a minor trophy at the good timing awards.

i like you're givving it some thought but i'm not commenting about the diameter/shape/type or anything of the like. if you are using a camera that has a manual mode option, that means you "twist" the lens to the correct focal depth oppose to the cameras trying to autofocus because it is almost always going to favor the top of the coin vs the edge. you manual focus down past the top of the coin to the reeds so they are the one in focus.

you're close as that last pic looks pretty good whatever you did/changed.

coinsarefun

@LanceNewmanOCC it is on manual but I control the focus on the desktop software.
No shaking, much steadier. I move the focus around the letters on edge..
I don’t look at the coin surface.

LanceNewmanOCC

@coinsarefun said:c
@LanceNewmanOCC it is on manual but I control the focus on the desktop software.
No shaking, much steadier. I move the focus around the letters on edge..
I don’t look at the coin surface.

that'll save your back. i did spend a lot of time hunkering over my dslr/copy stand, too much. never got around to tethering though i did try a couple times but never followed through.

koynekwest

I really love that dime!

ricko

There are many sizes of reflectors for flashlights.... and the larger companies sell component parts for their lights, so you can buy the reflectors separately. Try Surefire or Streamlite... there are others.. Cheers, RickO

coinsarefun

@ricko said:
There are many sizes of reflectors for flashlights.... and the larger companies sell component parts for their lights, so you can buy the reflectors separately. Try Surefire or Streamlite... there are others.. Cheers, RickO

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I remember you saying I might try larger sizes and you were right. I really didn’t want to get into imaging
the edges or coins period. But, out of desperation I learned so I can keep track of all the stuff I have.
Thanks for the tip on manufactures, I’ll do that.