Darkest silver toning I've ever seen...

coinpictures

Just got the coin that I originally posted about here. In-hand, the coin is lovely, although it is extremely difficult to photograph. The extra-sharp details, combined with the highly-reflective fields, lead me to believe this is actually a proof, although since it is so extremely darkly toned throughout (steel black blending to dark navy blue around the eagle and through the hair on the obverse), they don't qualify as mirrors per se. No evidence of cleaning under 10X.

Here are two sets of pictures. I cannot get the reflectivity of the mirrors...

Preussen

Looks like a nice coin . I know how hard it is to get good pics of dark coins; I have a Prussia 5 Mark Proof from the Virgil Brand collection, and I'm sure you know how dark many of his coins are. Mine is a 1907 and a beautiful coin, but it looks terrible in my pics...which I won't post . - Preussen

ajaan

Almost looks like one of your brown copper coins.

spoon

Now THAT is an awesome coin!!

FilamCoins

That is pretty It does kinda look like copper!

coinpictures

Some angled camera shots. While the fields are overexposed due to their reflectivity, you can see how cool the blue toning is on both sides, especially the reverse...

The fields look fairly "dirty"; not sure if that's just the extent of the toning, or if it could use a bath in acetone. I'm tempted not to [CENSORED] with it...

rhound1977

Looks awesome, much darker than my Eddie Crown, the details look awesome, must be nice to see in person...

AuldFartte

Heckuva nice strike on that one!!! And I love the toning
I wouldn't with it either.
Have you tried this method for your pics yet? You can usually capture lustre and color very nicely. This comes from forum member Darkhorse (Phil Arnold) who, as I understand it, does the "True View" pics for PCGS.

Udo

No doubt, it's worth its money!

MSD61

Would love to see this coin in hand. The strike is fantastic!

theboz11

coinpictures

<< <i>Heckuva nice strike on that one!!! And I love the toning
I wouldn't with it either.
Have you tried this method for your pics yet? You can usually capture lustre and color very nicely. This comes from forum member Darkhorse (Phil Arnold) who, as I understand it, does the "True View" pics for PCGS. >>



I've tried it, but I don't like it. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I end up with pictures that are slightly distorted at the periphery... sharper focus on one edge than the other, wider rims on one side than the other. The shots just don't look "natural" (I also think that way of the end result of the Hamburg piece in the link above; something just looks "off"... I can't quite put my finger on it). I'd sooner leave it as an angled shot intact.

In fact, I did some more experimenting with the method that I used for the last oblique toning shots above, and this seems to work well for those lustrous silver/nickel pieces I've been having problems capturing. Last night I did a whole bunch of German 50-pfennig, 1/2 Mark, and 1 Mark pieces in XF-BU that I'm planning to add to my Ebay store, but like an idiot I forgot to upload the pictures to my server so I cannot link to them at the moment.

IMO, for selling purposes it's more important to get a semi-accurate capture of the condition/toning/lustre than to necessarily get a straight-on shot.

Not only that, but I need to keep the process as simple and quick as possible, or I'm NEVER going to get through photographing and listing all the coins I intend to (probably 500-1,500 to get through).

Thoughts?

AuldFartte

I know it's a time consuming process. Sorry 'bout that - I forgot the pics were for selling purposes. I use Phil's method for imaging coins that will stay in my collection Your's will work just fine, IMO, for selling. Actually, they are a helluva lot better than most Ebay pics

TheKidCollector1991

Wow!

Looks more like a Alumminium-Nickle alloy!

But thhat is amazingly dark toning!