Check these out

IvanOnly

These are my recent scans trying to get my scanner skills up to par.

2000 Sacagawea Obverse

2000 Sacagawea Reverse

The spots are dust on the 2x2 flip. Ran out of compressed air

Placid

Looks like a nice scan to me.

Russ

Outstanding photography work.

Russ, NCNE

ClarkOfKent

Very, very nice for a scan! Proofs are awful tough to scan... I've tried all kinds of tricks. I wish I could turn down the bulb in the scanner.

What kind of scanner did you use for these shots?

Clark

LanLord

That particular coin, either in circ strike or proof are the hardest coins to photograph. You did really nice on this one.

IvanOnly

Thanks all.

Clarkofkent - I actually use an Astra 1200U, kinda of a cheap scanner.
One trick I use on some coins is to use a pen to prop the coin on, it reflects the light away from the capture device.

ClarkOfKent

IvanOnly,

I've tried the tilt-o-matic method, too. Sometimes it's the only way to prevent glare-out. When you tilt them too far it makes the coin appear out-of-round. To make up for this, I scan at a higher res.... say 600dpi, then rescale it to bring it back into round, then reduce the res. If you always scale down from the original, and not up, you never introduce anything into the picture that wasn't there because the software had to interpolate between pixels.

BTW, based on the amount your SAC is out-of-round, I calculated that you had it tilted at approximately 10 degrees. Uh... that doesn't make me an anal geek, does it?

Clark

BSqr

Ivan,

please tell me how you setup your coins for scan. I've been trying but not having much luck with either silver or gold coins. they just look terrible. any help you (or anyone else) coould provide would be appreciated.

lordmarcovan

Yup. Those look like perfectly serviceable scans to me. Not too tiny, but not too huge, either. I usually remove non-slabbed coins from the 2 X 2's or flips- I personally get a better result that way. Your scans are not bad at all considering you left the coin in the 2 X 2. A little bitty speck or some glare is to be expected when that is the case.

I assume that is a proof Squawbuck? If not, it's a heckuva nice looking prooflike MS coin, and your scanning skills are better than I thought.

Never mind- I just saw the mintmark. Of course it's a proof. You captured the cameo contrast well. Sometimes that's easy, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes one has to scan a nicely colored or cameoed coin at a slight angle. ClarkOfKent is not a geek for noticing this- just very observant. I didn't notice that. It doesn't matter to me if the coin is slightly out-of-round if it was necessary to angle it a little to show the contrast to full advantage.

I had a dickens of a time trying to show the colors on this proof Indian cent. Scanned flat on the glass, it came out looking like a normal red MS Indian. At a slight angle, you see the result I got- and I was lucky enough to get that scan on the first try, without having to tweak the brightness or other settings at all. You will note that my picture is also slightly out-of-round because of the angle, but it was worth it to show those colors accurately. The coin was in a slab (ANACS PR62 RB), so scanning it at a slight angle was a little easier- I just laid the slab on the glass with something underneath one side of it (a pencil, if I recall correctly).

ClarkOfKent

Here's another quick tip for the tilt-o-matic method. If you want to get the whole slab in the scan without the pencil, or other elevating device showing... use a clear piece of plastic that's larger than the slab as a tilt-o-base. I use the front of a cd case. It also seems to help on my scanner that this method elevates the coin further away from the scanner light source. On some scanners the object gets out of focus if it isn't flat against the glass, but on mine it doesn't seem to matter. BTW, I using a cheapo HP 2200C.

Clark

ursabear

IvanOnly - Great shots. The proof Sacagaweas are hard to scan (and bright Kennedys, as well). You did a great job!

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