Toned Morgan Photo Contest - Results are in!

solid

Polls are closed and the results are in!



1st place goes to #25 - poorguy - Congratulations, Brandon!

2nd place goes to #10 - mgoodm3

3rd place is a tie between #21 - messydesk and #09 - cosmicdebris

Thanks to all the contestants for your hard work in taking these photos. I think this place
has some of the finest coin photographers in the world, not to mention some of the best
folks anywhere, and I'm continually impressed by what I see!

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I have also tabulated the results of 8 total votes for the "Contestant's choice" poll:

1st place goes to #25 - poorguy (Congrats again, Brandon!) 4.5 votes (.5 for a best obverse vote)

2nd place goes to #10 - mgoodm3 - 1.5 votes (.5 for a best reverse vote)

3rd place is once again a tie, but this time between #18 - TONEDDOLLARS and #22 CarlWohlforth

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Thanks again to everyone - it was a kick for me to be able to see all of the photos ahead of time.
I didn't even share them with Paul (fivecents), who I know was just dying to see them!

Ken

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Many of you have been patiently waiting a long time for this, and here it is!

Thanks go out to Paul (fivecents) for allowing his beautiful Morgan dollar to make it's way
around the country as the subject of this photo contest - the coin is now home, safe and
sound. Thanks also go out to all of the contestants for all their hard work in taking these
photos and for taking good care of the coin!

We have seventeen entries for the contest. Each contestant was originally assigned
a number for their photo - some have included this and other have not. I took all of
entries and randomly mixed them here.

The contest was started with no guidelines as to how they should be judged, so your vote is
for the "best" photo, however you see it.

I will also conduct a second, unofficial poll for the contestants only. If you are one of the
contestants, please PM me to vote on the best photo, other than your own. This will be
interesting as these are the people who have seen the coin in hand. Paul (fivecents)
also gets a vote in this one!

The contest will end Monday night at midnight, Central Standard Time.

Now, on with the show!

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RedneckHB

Great pics everyone. This is gonna be a tight contest.

eyoung429

Great shots all......I can tell who did 3 of the sets!!!

DickyBetz

Nice pics!

mgoodm3

nice pics. I gotta see these at home. My monitor at work sucks.

CarlWohlforth

Nice job everybody!

nwcs

Lots of variety here!

poorguy

Great job everyone! Isn't it wonderful to have this many people you can trust to handle a great coin like this and have everything run smoothly?

Barry

It's been so long, I don't remember which one is mine...

cosmicdebris

Nice work all. I think 25,10 and 9 are the best 3 but I can only vote for one.

KlectorKid

I like 25 and 10 alot. Good job to everyone though.

Newmismatist

I liked 9 the best as it seems to accurately capture the colors that I see often on toned Morgans. It's too bad we can't all see what the coin actually looks like to compare which photo most accurately captures the actual look of the coin.

mtnman

This was a really tough choice. There are some really great pictures in this group.

MikeInFL

Great photos by all.

You know when you're reading this forum too much when you can look at a picture and tell who took it. I see quite a few familiar photo techniques.

Well done!...MIke

nwcs

Definitely are some good photographs and some people's techniques are clear. I have my opinions, of course, about the faithfulness to the original coin. But having said that, that coin was truly what Eric originally said: difficult to image well.

RotatedRainbows

<< <i>I liked 9 the best as it seems to accurately capture the colors that I see often on toned Morgans. It's too bad we can't all see what the coin actually looks like to compare which photo most accurately captures the actual look of the coin. >>



That is the one I voted for as well as it seems that it most accurately represents the true "look" of the coin. Considering the coin that is in front in the voting it appears some people are voting for the picture with the best color instead of the picture that is more likely to accurately reproduce the colors as they appear on the coin.

bgrice

Interesting to see the different views from each person. Kudos to everyone. Vote placed.

Russ

Fascinating.

Russ, NCNE

BlindedByEgo

Something about #22 just reached out and grabbed my

CarlWohlforth

<That is the one I voted for as well as it seems that it most accurately represents the true "look" of the coin. Considering the coin that is in front in the voting it appears some people are voting for the picture with the best color instead of the picture that is more likely to accurately reproduce the colors as they appear on the coin.>

RotatedRainbows: Have you seen the coin in hand? Are you one of the participants?

As one of the photographers I'd like to comment but perhaps I should wait until Monday?

Bunker

Tough decision, in the end I voted for #25....nice job by everyone involved.

messydesk

<< <i>That is the one I voted for as well as it seems that it most accurately represents the true "look" of the coin. Considering the coin that is in front in the voting it appears some people are voting for the picture with the best color instead of the picture that is more likely to accurately reproduce the colors as they appear on the coin. >>


I won't say which is mine until after the polls close, but I was considering that when I took my picture. There is a definite trade-off in trying to get an accurate documentation of the colors on a coin and a feel for the overall appearance. I tried to balance the two, and it ain't easy, especially with a hunk of plastic in the way. It can be an endless cycle of "a little more bling" followed by "a little more color." In person, the obverse was generally dark at first glance under ambient room light, especially in contrast to the white NGC plastic insert, but when you hit it with a lamp, parts just caught fire.

RotatedRainbows

No, I have not seen the coin or entered the contest, I was going by the 1000's of toned coins I have seen the past 20+ years I have collected them. Since most of the people voting have not seen the coin the only real poll which will be accurate is the one of the participants since they know what the coin really looks like in person. The rest of us are just guessing which looks the best (closest to the real thing).

poorguy

The rest of us are just guessing which looks the best (closest to the real thing).

There is alot more to a good photograph than color balance. Focus, Sharpness, presentation, and Lighting (ensuring areas aren't too hot or cold) for example.

If you are just going by if the coin has the same color as it does in person, then you might as well vote for all of them as they all are superb in the fact that they captured the correct colors on the coin depending on what angle you looked at it or what angle was used when it was shot. It has been the general consensus that the coin looked different in different angles with vibrant colors seen at more lighted angles and a darker and slightly dull appearance when looked at straight on with an array of combinations of color and luster in the angles between straight on and tilted directly into the light. This complex balance is most likely why this was such a challenging coin to photograph. An excellent selection by fivecents ensured a varying set of entries.

oldcameoproofsguy

Whoever shot #9 did a fantastic job! The exposure and the clarity of the image is simply outstanding. Some of the other images were pretty darned good as well.

I'm glad I wasn't in this contest. I would have been pretty much humiliated.

CarlWohlforth

Brandon put it well. I agree with what he is saying.


<but when you hit it with a lamp, parts just caught fire.>

With only a single photo to enter it seems several of the entries decided to try to catch this fire. That is what I went for. And CameoProofGuy, try it, it is a great experience and I feel no humiliation even though I am not a contender.

partagas

Really nice job people. It was tuff picking one.

DMWJR

awesome pics!

relayer

Lots of great pictures

For my vote, I thought it should be for the picture that the coin would look like in hand.

Since I've never seen the coin in hand, I figured #14 was probably the best representation, so I tried to match the photos to which one was closest to #14, and there were quite a few nice pictures where the coin looked like #14.

Once I fully appreciated the logic of my analysis, I voted for the only one I could...





























Yeah it was #14

LeeG

All you guys did a great job! I'm going to give it a shot next time. Should be fun. My choice was #16. Just did something for me. Congrat's Again

mgoodm3

Ahhh. Everything is so much nicer on my monitor at home. Make sure you look at all of these on a nice monitor.

beep

Looked at the pics on a very nice crt and now at my home. ..great pics! Ok...so I like #9

pursuitofliberty

amazing photographs ... I looked earlier today and looked again ...

A very interesting perception as to the different looks the same coin can get in a photgraph. I was especially happy to see #14, as it helped me understand greatly what the coin looked like in hand

I had five favorites .... tough to choose ... congratulations to everyone who participated as this is a very informative post

KurtHorn

I was really torn between 25 and 10. I finally went with 10. Not because I think it makes the coin look the most beautiful, but because from comparing all the shots I think it is probably the most accurate.

razorface1027

What, why & how is it that the 1880-S Morgan dollar seems to be a key coin for toning? I too, had a 80-S toner in MS-65. It's baffling to me that so many 80-Ss are toned. Can someone splain this to me?

By the way...Sharp toner and excellent pics. Tough decision but I went with 21




Tom

LucyBop

shucks, I never sent my images...

ibzman350

Great pics everyone.............It was a tuff decision but I had to voted for mine, otherwise I wouldn't be getting any votes..




Herb

fivecents

I would like to thank board member Solid for his hard work and making this contest happen. Without Solid this contest would have fallen apart. Thanks dude!!!!

There is a prize for the winning photographer....a proof set run 1961 thru 1964.

It really says something in this day and age when you can send a nice coin to a list of fellow forum members all across the United States and have NO problems whatsoever. The coin was returned in perfect shape, not even one blemish on the holder.

I need to look at this thread on broadband. My dail up connection can't handle the volume of images.
The photos that I have seen look great!!

I chose this coin for the contest because it would be a challange to image. The obverse is prooflike and at the right angle the colors really light up.

I am thinking about sending this toned Morgan to PCGS and let them image it with trueview imaging.

cosmicdebris

Paul thank you for letting us use your coin for this contest. It was the perfect subject and a great challenge.

cullenbryant

I would pick different images depending if i was the buyer or
seller. Some of the images seem to camoflage the contact marks (07)
others seem to enhance the blemishes.

Stuart

I'm going to have to spend some time reviewing these closely to make a very tough decision on which coin image to vote for. These photos are excellent to exceptional!!

Congratulations to all of the participants, who I'm sure spent hours imaging this coin to the best of their ability!!

gemtone65

Without a definition of "best", and given the lack of familiarity of the coin by most voters, I'm afraid the results of this first poll will be limited. Both of these problems could have been mitigated if a definition had been provided, and if the characteristics of the coin had been described verbally with regard to color, luster and marks. As the latter issue will be automatically fixed in the second vote, the results should be considerably more meaningful.

What I did was to first go through the pictures and assume each represented a different coin, available for sale at the same price. The coin I would most want to own is #25 -- which not surprisingly, is leading the poll. So, responders for the most part seem to be voting for the picture which depicts the coin in its best "light', so to speak. (Parentheticaly, I've seen this photographic style many times before in the real world, and had the same reaction.)

Next, I went back and, based on my experience and the ad hoc comments provided in the thread about this coin's visual characteristics, attempted to choose the picture that I thought might most fairly and clearly represent the coin. Four pictures made my cut: #14, #5, #9, and #10. Of those four, I chose #5 as being the "best" picture in this sense.

ROBERTB

Wow, I guess I picked the concensus winner.

xbob

I also picked my favorite (it wasn't mine) and seem to agree with the masses who have spoken so far.

The results have made me realize how completely different the same coin can look based on the photography conditions.

I am also realizing how far I have to go to get a truly great photo.
The night I took mine was the first attempt with a new camera. I've at least gotten a little better since then. It was a long time ago .

DNADave

Number 10 is a fantastic photo.

Shows great color and perfect detail. Well done.

EJB

...Tuff pick,...Picked one but could have picked them all,...I would buy any one....

Hobbyist

Far and away #9.

Stuart

I voted for #9, and thought that #10 was a close second -- both are superb!! I also considered #21 and #25 for honorable mention.

Baley

Nice pictures. I disqualified all pictures that were too big and I had to scroll left/right.

I want the pic of the whole coin to fit on one screen.
I could also tell from the 'style' who took some of the pics.

Very fun thread.

Ronnie35226

Nice Coin ..... Nice Pics

messydesk

Last day to vote, in case there's anyone left who hasn't.