Eye sight as a coin collector.

relicsncoins

I've always had pretty decent eye sight and had no problems seeing details on coins with no magnification. Around 48 I started squinting to see the same details. By 51 I was wearing 1.5 magnifiers. I'm about to turn 55 and am up to 1.75X. Any advice for those that have been there?

PerryHall

Get your eyes checked by a doctor. You are getting to the age when people start getting cataracts which everyone will eventually get if they live long enough.

DisneyFan

Look for a 5X magnifying glass that allows you to see the whole coin, distortion free.

coinkat

Develop a magnification strategy that meets your needs. And in writing that I am not implying that there is an issue with your vision. Instead magnification helps build necessary confidence in buying a coin that meets your expectations. Of course, having reasonable expectations helps.

I use minimal magnification up through a microscope depending on what I am attempting to accomplish by the coin examination.

rte592

Take a picture with your phone.
Enlarge the picture, review the small details 👍
I may have done that more than I admit. 🤔
Get you're eyes checked.

Meltdown

I'm in the same boat and roughly the same age... can't even go out to dinner without readers anymore to read the menu.
All my life I've had 20/20 and over the course of 3 years I'm forced to carry glasses.

MJPHELAN

It's called presbyopia. The natural lens in the eye becomes less flexible starting around age 40 and cannot focus up close and glasses are needed for near vision. People who are myopic (nearsighted) can focus up close without their distance glasses. Besides glasses, there are some surgical options, but in my opinion, reading glasses are the best way to go.

mark

Maywood

Around the age of 41-42 I looked at the change in my pocket one day and spotted a Wheat Cent. When I looked to see the date I had to pull it close, strange for me. I was a tool and die maker my entire career and always did up close, fine work easily and had better than 20/20 vision. This caused me to take notice. Shortly afterwards I had my eyes checked and got my first pair of spectacles.

Since then my eyes have gotten progressively worse, I'm now 70 and wear the glasses most of the time. @MJPHELAN and @PerryHall offer good advice. Get your eyes checked and don't try to "self-medicate" with the over the counter pharmacy reading glasses. Be kind to yourself and seek help, what is happening is quite normal and to be expected. Cataracts are almost unavoidable, they will happen as a natural fact of aging. The silver lining is that recent developments with outpatient surgery for that problem renders your vision restored.

Mr_Spud

I was born with a cataract in one eye that left me about 90% blind, the other eye so myopic and near sighted that I could see with the equivalent of a 5 x lens if I held a coin 2 inches of my eye. But then that eye developed a severe cataract where I couldn’t see coins at all except with a huge Magnabrite magnifying lens. Then I got the cataract removed and became very farsighted and couldn’t read or see coins or computer monitors without strong readers. Then I got a vitriol detachment that left a collapsed membrane in the middle of my field of vision that’s like a huge moving floater that moves around creating blurry distortions. But then suddenly I got back into coins and made up lost time with a vengeance.

My advice is to simply go for first impression eye appeal as a major factor in picking out coins with less emphasis on hits and hairlines. The hits and hairlines are still important, just not as important as first impression eye appeal. Then it doesn’t matter so much how good your vision is and whether you have your readers on or not and it’s cheaper and just as satisfying, if not more so, than focusing on imperfections you can’t see anyway. Then take it to the next level and learn the art of embracing imperfections. It’s an acquired taste, and moves your focus to a higher level than most mortals ever reach

GRANDAM

Love that 1894 Morgan

Cameonut

I feel your pain, so I'll share my situation as it is a bit different. I started with the run up of readers until I had cataracts removed in both eyes in 2023. New lenses are high tech and my vision is 20:20. I do notice a bit of blurriness when reading things beyond 3 feet and the doctor says I could use a reader of about 0.5 to 0.75.
So now I am back to readers for mid distance, but what I find more helpful is using a flashlight to shed more light on what I am trying to see. I'll be trying that again tomorrow at the Charlotte show.

LeeBone

Been there done that.
Collect bigger coins 😆

logger7

I used to have really exceptional eyesight; too much time on computers contributes to eyestrain. I usually get readers, now up to 2.5x. I need to drink more organic carrot juice.

lermish

@logger7 said:
I used to have really exceptional eyesight; too much time on computers contributes to eyestrain. I usually get readers, now up to 2.5x. I need to drink more organic carrot juice.

coinbuf

I suspect that many have/are in your shoes. I'm in my early 60's and had to start wearing readers at around 60, it sucks in some ways. But the bright side is I have a really strong set of readers that I use to look at coins, now I very seldom have to use a loupe with those on.

I'll have my eyes checked this year for the first time in at least ten years, just a part of aging.

johnny9434

I'm glad to have gotten mine checked and 2 successful cataract surgeries are gone. Tis good to see things 😉

relicsncoins

Thanks for the advice. I guess my idea of arm lengthening surgery is out.

seatedlib3991

I did not need eyeglasses until late 2023 (age 62), when a medical crisis blinded me temporarily and then left me with residual damage. Today I have eyeglasses spread through out the house because like mittens when I was seven they seem to always be missing.
My biggest problem is I can never seem to find the rigth combination of eyeglasses (or not) when using a magnifier to look at coins. James

Cuprinkor

I developed an astigmatism as a child and have worn glasses since I was eight. I have very nearsighted vision which is apparently good for viewing coins.
Now into my 60's I much prefer to view coins with my natural vision (without glasses). I think I see the coins for what they are.
I do get an annual eye exam and the optometrist says my eyes are healthy - no cataracts, glaucoma, or macular degeneration at this time (knock on wood).

johnny9434

I don't see it either, relics

BillJones

I used to be grade with no magnification. After cataract surgery, I need to use a B&L 3x I’ve had for years. I guard that glass very carefully.

I had been myopic since high school. It was good for my coin collecting hobby and later profession.

jesbroken

Until mid/late 50's, I never used a maglens for cents. I would look at buckets of cents and could see anything I wished to see with the naked eye. Then cataracts occurred, had surgery and wonderful, but required bifocal's. Sucked big time. No longer look thru rolls(other than for silver). I bought a decent camera and a nice large monitor and developed a hunger for attributing coins. Now can enlarge to search for the smallest feature and for last 15 or so years have developed a new passion for the hobby I had thought I lost. The worst degradation to my vision was the development of floaters(pencil eraser size), now that is aggravating. I can see fine but must avert my eyes to move the floaters.
Jim

ProofCollection

I'm about your age and I didn't like being reliant on readers so I went and got a new lens in one eye, it was about $6000 because it was completely elective but I am also now cataract-proof in that eye. It is tuned for near-sight and from what they say I should be able to read with it forever. My other eye had perfect distance vision so we left it alone. I still use 1.5 reading glasses for long term reading and computer work because it's just a little bit easier & more comfortable that way, but I no longer get in situations where I feel helpless and unable to read small or dimly lit text.

ELVIS1

I have had 2 cataracts surgeries in the last year. I see better now than ever except for reading range.
It's an adjustment. It's weird because in my peripheries I see the ring outline of the lenses. its a small distortion but my sight is 100% better.