ANA Summer Seminar
perfectstrike
Posts: 677 ✭✭
I've been to the Summer Seminars before and believe that others should experience the learning experience too.
I thought I'd try and write about my next 2 weeks in Colorado Springs. I don't know how frequently I'll add things, but my goal is to add a reply every day. I'm looking forward to this Wednesday when MrEureka does his panel discussion.
Day 1
Check-in, opening ceremony and first evening mini seminar (The Lincoln Cent Power Collector). I’m more than a little surprised by what has been lost even though prices have gone up 20%. At least the food is still good.
The Lincoln Cent Power Collector is taught by Chuck (coppercoins) Daughtrey. Today’s session covered grading wear and MS Lincolns. The class is very small as only 4 of the 9 registered students showed. Chuck uses the grading standards published in the ANA grading standards, 5th edition book. We started with wear on circulated Lincolns and Chuck’s freehand illustration skills are fantastic (if anyone hasn’t seen the artwork he has posted to the boards, take the time to search it out). The class was then asked to grade 10 circulated Lincolns in flips. I was a little handicapped without my reading glasses and 2x loupe, but I did manage to get one correct and most of the others within a designation. The AU’s are tough, but I believe I know what to look for when I have the tools with me. We went through a powerpoint presentation and learned about deducting for the various types of characteristics used in grading MS Lincolns. The ANA loaned Chuck a faulty projector, so we watched his laptop flatscreen instead of the projector screen. This was a little deceiving in that the examples used were magnified much more that anyone uses to grade. Scaling down the picture sizes to what you would actually expect to see took a little imagination. Class wound down with Chuck talking about various odds and ends based on class questions. Homework was to bring in some MS Lincolns to grade. I brought a bunch of lower grade MS slabbed coins for next week’s digital photography class and there are quite a few varieties, so that will be my contribution. I will throw in a ringer as I have a RB matte proof.
Day 2 will see the start of this weeks class, The Ultimate Mint Error Course and the last part of the mini seminar.
David
I thought I'd try and write about my next 2 weeks in Colorado Springs. I don't know how frequently I'll add things, but my goal is to add a reply every day. I'm looking forward to this Wednesday when MrEureka does his panel discussion.
Day 1
Check-in, opening ceremony and first evening mini seminar (The Lincoln Cent Power Collector). I’m more than a little surprised by what has been lost even though prices have gone up 20%. At least the food is still good.
The Lincoln Cent Power Collector is taught by Chuck (coppercoins) Daughtrey. Today’s session covered grading wear and MS Lincolns. The class is very small as only 4 of the 9 registered students showed. Chuck uses the grading standards published in the ANA grading standards, 5th edition book. We started with wear on circulated Lincolns and Chuck’s freehand illustration skills are fantastic (if anyone hasn’t seen the artwork he has posted to the boards, take the time to search it out). The class was then asked to grade 10 circulated Lincolns in flips. I was a little handicapped without my reading glasses and 2x loupe, but I did manage to get one correct and most of the others within a designation. The AU’s are tough, but I believe I know what to look for when I have the tools with me. We went through a powerpoint presentation and learned about deducting for the various types of characteristics used in grading MS Lincolns. The ANA loaned Chuck a faulty projector, so we watched his laptop flatscreen instead of the projector screen. This was a little deceiving in that the examples used were magnified much more that anyone uses to grade. Scaling down the picture sizes to what you would actually expect to see took a little imagination. Class wound down with Chuck talking about various odds and ends based on class questions. Homework was to bring in some MS Lincolns to grade. I brought a bunch of lower grade MS slabbed coins for next week’s digital photography class and there are quite a few varieties, so that will be my contribution. I will throw in a ringer as I have a RB matte proof.
Day 2 will see the start of this weeks class, The Ultimate Mint Error Course and the last part of the mini seminar.
David
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Day 2
MrEureka was walking around the cafeteria with handouts for tomorrows ethics open discussion. Some of the scenarios and questions have already appear for comment in this forum.
Started the Ultimate Mint Error Course today. Rich Schemmer is the instructor. He started off by asking what was needed to start hunting errors. The answer is a scale and a good loupe. Rich has a very nice portable scale that he carries around. After that we had pause for the theme of this year’s summer seminars, audio/visual aide problems. We watched a brief .ppt presentation providing an introduction to the class. Next, came the quiz to see how much we knew about errors. I didn’t do too badly, I got about 50% correct or partially correct. We had some discussion about the quiz and another pause for more A/V problems with a video about the mint. We put that off a while and discussed error vs. variety. A variety occurs at the time the die is hubbed and is present on all coins struck by the die. An error is a striking malfunction. Rich explained the difference between a blank and a planchet. Rich also gave us a preview of most of the things we would then see in the video. We watched most of the video, and Rich had to do the best he could for audio assistance. There was close up video of most of the machines and labor that goes into the processes of producing coins. There were a couple of handout pages that summarize coin weights and sizes to assist with finding errors. The wealth of new knowledge presented today and the handouts were of great value.
The last evening of the Lincoln Cent Power Collector mini seminar went hand in hand with the Error class I’m taking. Chuck went over many of the same things about errors and varieties that Rich covered earlier in my day via a .ppt presentation and then went into depth about die varieties. Chuck then covered the nine hub doubling classes in detail, with illustrations and pictures for most of them. We also have a partial list of year/mint mark combinations each class type. This portion of the seminar was awesome! I now can visualize the process that caused most of the doublings and it should make cherry picking much easier. Next, we moved on to practice grade some Lincolns. This was a lot of fun with the proper glasses and something close to the magnification I normally use. I got about a third dead on and about half one grade off. Chuck emailed us a one page handout for cherry picking at shows. He also asked us to assist him with a couple projects he’s working on. There was a short wrap up and the mini seminar was over all too soon. Thanks coppercoins!
Forgot to mention that Chuck showed us his artwork. He has some amazing skills.
Did anyone spot your matte proof in the Lincolns?
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Day 3
Second day of The Ultimate Mint Error Course was great. We watched a number of videos about the minting process. One was a video from the Discovery Channel titled Secrets of the US Mint, this showed us about making collector coins at the San Francisco and West Point mints. The other two videos were from Rich’s visits to the West Point and Philadelphia mints. Each video makes the actual minting process clearer. Rich also had drawn a rough sketch of the minting process on the board for us to see. There was also a quiz today. I scored 8 of 15 and missed two because I didn’t pay attention to the key words. I’m convinced that understanding the minting process is the key to understanding errors. During the afternoon hours, Rich brought some of his errors for us to view from the ANA vault. Many of these were my first time handling errors of specific types. During class breaks, I showed Rich my problem 1999 Silver proof set and corroded IHC and asked his opinions. Nothing unusual there.
While we were watching the West Point video, I asked about possible causes for the milk spotting on slabbed American Eagles. There’s a possibility this is coming from the post striking cleaning processes. There are at least 3 steps in surface cleaning after striking. One step uses a soapy detergent solution in water but only one side of each coin is thoroughly rinsed. The soapy bubbles in the bin are about the same color as the spots we see. There is still a 100% dip and ultrasonic drying to be completed, but if there is enough air drying time after the detergent rinse, spots could form on the “down” side and the subsequent dip and drying might not remove all the detergent contamination.
During lunch break I walked over to the ANA to check out the book sale. 10 minutes into this I knew I’d need more time and they are only open a couple hours each day, so I bought the reference books I needed for classes and my personal use and made a second visit during the dinner break. I didn’t buy any books from the sale but it was interesting looking through some of the material for sale.
I missed the Chris Chipoletti talk about the ANA while I was at the book sale. I was very interested in what he had to say and will now have to get the information second hand.
I did attend the Lie, Cheat and Steal: The Dark Side of Numismatics evening talk. This was excellent. There were three major surprises. First was how frequently the legal opinion and the ANA ethics/bylaws disagree. Second was how frequently the audience was strongly in favor of one side or the other of a question, even though it wasn’t the right thing to do ethically. It made the best business sense to reach a compromise in between the yes or no response for several of these. I was right there with the audience on most these. Only once did the discussion that followed sway me to change my stand. Third was the dealer reaction to the last question which was 100% ethics. Andy posted the question in the forum last evening. The audience voted for the ethical response. It seemed from the reaction, to me anyway, that some dealers might have done differently.
Day 4
Third day of The Ultimate Mint Error Course was great. Our time was split pretty evenly between viewing errors and watching video/.ppt. I spent some time perusing The Error Coin Encyclopedia that I bought yesterday. This is another must have book for anybody interested in this portion of the hobby. Rich gave us yet another quiz and this was the easiest yet, I scored 11-2/3 of 14. He’s a great instructor and the visual aides help a tremendous amount.
David
Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Greg Hansen, Melbourne, FL Click here for any current EBAY auctions Multiple "Circle of Trust" transactions over 14 years on forum
The weather has been misearable this year. I've spent more time trying to decide when to dash hrough the rain, even when I have my umbrella. The rain kept me out much later than I'd planned last evening (and it's raining again).
Day 5
Fourth day of The Ultimate Mint Error Course was the best yet. We started the day with a .ppt that reviewed all the major errors we had talked about. We had a short picture review at the end of yesterday and almost everyone easily recognized each error type. Just for everyone to know:
• Broadstrike has all of the original coin design showing, with the possible exception of the rim. Once the letter is missing, we have an off center.
• Off Centers have some portion of the design missing. They are rated from about 5% to 95%. The 40%-60% off centers are the most valuable. Kolit or K position is used to indicate where the off center strike occurred.
• Double Strikes occur in a number of ways. The second strike can be in or out of collar. One or both sides may show the second strike. There can be rotation between strikes. If only one side shows a second strike it’s because another planchet was blocking the strike.
• Clips of Incomplete planchets are usually planchet strip malfunctions. Check for the small collar indents at both edges of the clip. Check The Error Coin Encyclopedia for information on the Blakesly effect and how it can be used to check authenticity of clad planchets.
• Caps are struck coins that adhere to the dia na d may strike other coins. Deep caps or thimble caps are extremely desirable.
• Brockages are errors that involve more than one coin.
Rich than provided some review information about press types. Screw and counter weights, steam powered and electric varieties. We spend a good bit of time talking about and viewing the many types of brockages. The rest of the day was spent looking at websites and viewing errors with an eye on pricing.
The evening was spent at the YN auction. I hope a great time was had by all. There were certainly a good number of laughs. I bid on a few items, but only won a set of 36 variety cards made by J. T. Stanton (possibly trading cards?). It looks as if a small sealed bag may hold a few of the actual variety coins depicted in the cards.
David
That YN Auction is a fun event, I agree.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
I'm off to spend some time with friends with a stop or two at the local coin show. I won't post anything more until Saturday evening when I have my next mini-seminar. I'm greatly anticipating the Digital Photography class next week.
Day 6
Last day of The Ultimate Mint Error Course and a most of our time was devoted to evaluations, taking pictures and exchanging contact information. I highly recommend anybody with an interest in errors spending time with Rich Schemmer and learning everything possible. He did a great job teaching a class normally done with two instructors. The last significant portion of class was spent looking at auction sites and trying to locate errors that would be decent purchases. We also looked at eBay for a few portable digital scales.
We were asked to attend a surprise meeting after classes and before the reception/dinner. The subject was the future of ANA education programming. The ANA was soliciting feedback regarding a change to the Summer Seminars and adding education offerings before each year’s ANA shows. I’m sure I had the same knee jerk reaction as the rest of those present, but I listened and will think about what was said. I sit on enough non-numismatic Director Boards to realize that unless I can offer something positive, I’m wasting everybody’s time. In this case, I only know the why’s that were provided. I’m willing to spend some time to research the what’s and how comes that were not voiced.
Last activities of the day were the reception, dinner and recognition. I skipped the reception to catch up on my writing. The dinner and recognition were worth entertaining. The master of ceremonies (Wendell) worked the Vegemite from last nights YN auction into the spiel at every possible opportunity. It worked well.
I spent the rest of the evening saying goodbye to my classmates, instructors and new acquaintances. We also played some very bad pool.
David
Day 6
I left campus early afternoon and this was supposed to be a day of rest, fun and relaxation. Plans never quite work out the way intended. I got in the relaxation with a massage, I’ve used two really good therapists in Colorado Springs. I got in some fun with friends at a great restaurant downtown, Melting Pot. It was a bit pricey, but if you love fondue I highly recommend this one. I also did a quick walk through the coin show. Since I have little money, my sole purchase was a 66 SMS set. The Kennedy has possibilities if the obverse haze comes off, the reverse is solid CAM. Too bad it’s only a MS65 at best. The Rosey has so much haze it’s hard to even tell the grade potential. I’ll try and have this imaged in the Digital Photography class I’m taking this week.
Day 7
Holy helmet heads, Batman. The campus was overrun with bicyclists, thousands of them. There are tents pitched on most of the campus grass and in a few of the sheltered building lees.
The opening ceremony mentioned the extra people on campus were part of an MDA event and that these 3000 bicyclists would be leaving at some time like 4am. No other huge surprises at the opening ceremonies except that there are twice as many attending seminars this week versus last week.
Lane Brunner is teaching my 3 evening mini-seminar, Minting Misadventures: An Introduction to Collecting Error Coins. He’s going to do a whole evening of paper money so this is going to be a great class. Much of tonight was a review of the prior week with Rich Schemmer. Lane added some nice portions about ancient coining. He described the modern coining process then spent considerable time describing the die making process from design through working dies. I noted a few questions that I want to research. The Ultimate Mint Error Course presented such a volume of material that it will take me months of reading and note checking notes to check what I may have misunderstood. Lane then discussed blanks, planchets and scraps. Examples of some of these were passed around the class. Lane then showed an awesome .ppt of the coining chamber as we discussed this. The same details are in The Error Coin Encyclopedia, but this presenting worked much better for me. That’s part of why taking the same class from different instructors is valuable. Lane then presented a number of things in quick succession, creating ancient coins, the PDS system and planchet errors. Lane has a number of dies that were passed around as well as examples of the types of errors we were talking about.
I'm ready for Digital Photography tomorrow.
David
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
We'll use our hands and hearts and if we must we'll use our heads.
This is the first summer i've missed in Co. springs in a few years, and ironically enough last year i took the Ultimate Mint error course with Lane and Jim Wiles, who filled in when Rich couldn't make it. (I'm certain you'll see at least a couple of nifty/awesome double-dimes one of those evenings.)
The ANA may be far from perfect, but aside from possible weather complications, the summer seminar is as close to the perfect summer week as any numismatist can imagine. If you've got a couple bucks left over to spend at the YN auction or the show, even better.
cheers to the crowd up there, hope to make it back next year, and Woodsy better be up there too!
z
Day 8
This is the first day of the Digital Photography course taught by Chuck (coppercoins) Daughtrey. We received about 90 minutes of overview and a short demonstration of hands on photography. The setup is very slick and doesn’t cost a ton. A piece of glass, cotton cloth, a Styrofoam cup, some black felt or material with sticky on the back and a slightly thicker cloth. The most expensive part of this setup is the lighting. Chuck has the 180W Fiber-optic Light with Dual Guide,
Stock Number: ECO-150/BG-018 from http://www.coinoptics.com/. This he uses for lighting proof coins. Next pricey item is a good camera. I brought my Nikon Coolpix 990 and it is a dinosaur, not a lot of features to this beast. Next is a 75 watt reveal bulb. No problem here as I have several. The first trick is to use the piece of glass to reflect the light source onto the object, so the glass is tilted 45 degrees with the high side closes to the light source. Second trick was to diffuse the light at the source when photographing business strikes. The fixture with the reveal bulb is covered with a thin cotton cloth. Since we want only light reflected from the glass to shine down on the coin, we need to remove all stray reflections and direct lighting. If you use a copy stand, black felt over the shiny parts. If your camera is shiny, use felt to cover the chassis and shoot through a small hole over the lens. Last, you need a small wall or barricade between the coin and the light source. I’ll try and image this setup over the course of the week. I didn’t mention the styrofoam cup. For proof coins, you need two light sources. The two fiber optic light sources are directed toward the coin from about 3 and 9 o’clock. They shine into the styrofoam cup which has a small opening in the rim and is wide open at the bottom. The cup is inverted, the lens projects through the missing bottom and you slide a slab into the slit in the cup rim. This is truly remarkable. We had some time to try our cameras on this setup. I learned my 990 can do the job, but it takes way too long to setup because there aren’t a lot of features to help with auto focus and image shake. I’ve decided to buy a replacement. Talked to Chuck about making a shopping trip tomorrow.
This is the second evening of the Minting Misadventures mini seminar. Lane spent a portion of the class reviewing various types of die errors. These are errors that occur during the die making process and include design errors, engraving errors and hubbing errors. Types of design error would be the 1883 No Cents nickel and 1913 type 1 and 2 nickels. Alterations include things like reeding missing from the collar die. Engraving errors include things like misspellings and possibly the Wisconsin high and low leaf quarters. Overdates, doubled dies, excessive polishing, die breaks and split dies were all described. Examples for most of these were passed around the class. Lane then covered striking errors. These are errors that usually occur in the coining chamber. Off-center strikes occur because planchets are struck between dies, improper planchet feeding, oversized planchets are used and blanks are used instead of planchets. Double strikes occur when there is a normal first strike and the coin stays within the chamber and struck again. There are several type of multiple strikes: in-collar, flip-over in-collar, saddle strikes and more than two strikes on a planchet. Then there are strike throughs. This is just as it sounds, struck through just about any foreign object that enters the coining chamber. Brockages and caps are the last two types of striking errors. Examples of most of these were passed around the class. Lastly, Lane covered exotic, one-of-a-kind errors. Many of these are considered assisted because they shouldn’t happen without the intervention of a human operator. Many examples of these were passed around the class.
David
This is the Kennedy from the SMS set I bought. From the imaging, it's pretty obvious the obverse won't CAM. I don't think the imaging is bad considering I didn't have any lighting or filtering to remove the sunlit hotspots.
David
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
Day 9
This is the second day of the Digital Photography course. My homework last night was to look up a couple local camera shops so that I could buy a better camera. I called during the morning period to find out store hours. Chuck started with a 90 minute tutorial about Adobe Photoshop CS. About 75% of this was things I use with Photoshop Elements, so I assisted quite a few students when they got that far. At the end of yesterday, Chuck divided us into 3 teams. The teams should be balanced as far as photography and computer skills are concerned. Each team has two days to image three specific slabbed coins. One 1860 proof Seated Liberty dollar, one 1883 proof Trade dollar and one 1829 proof Capped Bust half dime. I took a few pictures with my 990 and they weren’t all bad. The half dime was a challenge. The larger coins were at the extreme capability for my camera, but they imaged sharply. I started cropping images before the class ended for the day. I should finish tomorrow morning and will help my teammates through by days end. I may have to reshoot some of these, but I think I’ve got the basics. I assisted with the Photoshop problems some of my classmates were having. If I didn’t mention this, Chuck is probably the youngest person in class. I believe the rest of us are the other side of 50. We broke early today and took a field trip to the camera shop. Besides my new camera, some classmates needed odds and ends. I bought a Nikon Coolpix P4. There was a side trip after we were finished with the camera store, but that’s for another time.
I had time to make a donation to the YN auction for Wednesday night. We’ll see how many dealers want a MS69RD Lincoln business strike for their type set.
This is the last evening of the Minting Misadventures mini seminar and we were promised paper money errors for today. Lane started us out with a few more coin errors that were in the presentations the prior days. These are some amazing coins, some from Lane’s personal collection and some from the Oops display what used to be at the ANA. I had the pleasure of viewing this display several times before it was taken down this year. We watch a .ppt regarding paper money errors and Lane passed around all these amazing examples for us to examine. This opened my eyes. To think I’ve been spending some of these folded errors that I’ve received in change. I’ll have to check everything that goes into my pockets, not just the coins. Thanks for a great mini-seminar, Lane Brunner!
David
keep on truckin'
Day 10
This is the third day of the Digital Photography course. Last night’s homework was to charge the batteries for my new camera so I could turn it on. I started the class by checking all the images I shot yesterday to see if any of them were usable. No luck there. With the assistance of the students, Chuck started putting together a list of coins to be imaged by each team for the class project. I contributed a PR69RD Lincoln. I only had one charged battery for my new camera at this point so I spent about 30 minutes initializing things and trying a couple test shots. A few other students needed small parts for their cameras, so we drove out to Best Buy. I needed a memory card, since the ones at the camera shop were way over priced. By the time I’d returned the last battery was charged and I was ready to use my camera. I started imaging yesterday’s coins and was totally frustrated with my inability to get the camera to focus properly. I did make a few shots but they were awful. The class has been working a split lunch so that somebody would be present at all times to watch the valuable coins. People had started coming back from lunch, at ths point, so I popped out and hurried back so I could get Chuck to assist with settings on my new camera that would make it focus properly. Luck would have it that I picked the toughest coin and so I was fighting hot spots, reflections and focusing issues all at once. Took us about 30 minutes, but we finally got the Seated Lib $1 imaged. This coin and the 1829 half dime were challenges in Photoshop. Chuck showed me two options off the Image/Adjustments pulldowns that I’ll never forget. These two tweeks and the trick with Image/Adjustments/Levels that he had already provided were all I needed. I stayed late and imaged 4/5 more coins as well as the setups used in class. I Photoshop’d everything and called it a night. I can run through the Photoshop side in about 5 minutes now.
Here are the pictures of the photography setup.
The first group of three pics are for non-cameo coins. Top image is from behind the copy stand. Middle image is from above the light source. Bottom image is from the side and you can see the black mask added to the camera bottom.
The next group of four pics are for cameo coins. First image is from behind the copy stand. Second image is from behind the copy stand but above the camera, note the image in the display. Third image is from above the light source, not the slab extending from the slit in the cup. Last image is from the side and you can see the slab edge, camera masking and the amount of light the slab is getting.
David
Kudos Perfectstrike.
Joe
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Complete Set of Chopmarked Trade Dollars
Carson City Silver Dollars Complete 1870-1893http://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/showcase.aspx?sc=2722"
David
I'm looking forward to graduation day tomorrow!
Day 11
This is the fourth day of the Digital Photography course. We were to use today to complete our photography and Photoshop work. There are 17 coins in total for use to image. I need to thank Chuck, my classmates and Don Kagan for the coins used in class.
• 1883 Trade dollar (holdered and cameo)
• 1860 Seated dollar (holdered and toned)
• 1829 Half dime (holdered and cameo)
• 1916 Mercury dime (raw)
• 1794 Large cent copy (raw and toned)
• 1869 Greece coin (raw and brown)
• 1971 Eisenhower dollar (raw and toned)
• 1963 Lincoln cent (holdered and deep cameo)
• 1958 Lincoln cent proof (holdered and red)
• 1899 Canada Large cent (holdered and brown with a touch of red)
• 1957 Franklin half proof (raw)
• Alamo token (raw and red)
• 2005 Jefferson nickel (holdered)
• 1956 Washington quarter (holdered and toned)
• 1929 Indian Head $2.50 gold (holdered)
• 1868 Liberty Head $10 gold (holdered)
I spent time on the phone last evening with Nikon support, talking to them about my new camera and the weird things it was doing. With their help I made some setup modifications and things went well today. I spent about equal amounts of time helping classmates and getting my own work done. In making additional images with my new camera, I found out just how much of an art there is to reflections, light positions and diffusion. I made about five styrofoam cup diffusers before going to class this morning. I found the material for free, and it only took a few minutes. During the day I found that the smaller cups (10 oz) work better for smaller cameo coins (1c to 25c) and the larger cups (maybe 16 oz?) work better for the trade dollar and the Kennedy in my SMS set. I also picked up a few more Photoshop CS tips. Not all my images are rotated properly and I determined the proper time and method to do this thanks to a classmate. Chuck did take a bit of time to show use some microphotography, but there wasn’t time to do any during class. We also had a special guest drop by while almost everyone was out to lunch and a return visit at the end of the day, Rick Snow and his amazing Indian Head cents. Chuck spent considerable afternoon time trying to image some of the awesomely toned slabbed IHC’s. He tried a number of camera and lighting combinations. Even if you don’t collect copper coins, take the time to stop and visit Rick at a show and let him show you how beautiful colored copper can be. There was one more highlight for the day and that was the picture Chuck took of the class teams and individuals.
Well, it’s Wednesday night and this is summer seminar, so it’s YN auction night. Last week was packed full of entertainment, this week was hilarious. I didn’t stay for the full show, as the last 10 days has really caught up with me. Anybody that was here this week and didn’t stay until at least 10pm, missed out on what should be the talk of tomorrow. We had instructors make a winning bid on a flower bouquet and present it to a student, an auctioneer sampling the Vegemite won by a bidder, musical entertainment and a YN comedy team. There was also a top notch show of dedication when Rick Snow and Joe Boling split the cost ($2500) for the auction lot that Rick had won and presented it to a YN. Words just don’t do this justice. I did win a few lots, including one with a sample slab Cameron.
David
Last day of the Digital Photography class. I can’t thank Chuck (coppercoins) Daughtrey enough. Chuck told us he learned a lot from teaching this class. I’m sure my other nine classmates would agree we’ve just begun to see what we can do. This morning was for finishing up our web ready images. For my team, that meant working through the Photoshop process for about 10 images, gathering all the images together, deciding which were the best, some final Photoshop tweeks and giving Chuck a copy of our .jpg’s for a .ppt. I learned that I have very little ability to accurately match colors, but I suspected that before class started
The banquet was as entertaining this week as last week. The book sale raised over $14,000 for both weeks combined and the YN auctions $22,000 for both weeks combined. Time to finish cleaning up, packing up and off to bed. Gotta be on the bus to the Denver mint at way too early am.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Thanks for all your updates!
It is amazing what Chuck can do with the camera considering he is severly colorblind.
He is a good friend of mine and is spending a couple of nights with me on his return from Colorado to help me one-on-one with my photography and grading skills. I can't wait!
Jeff
Thanks for the details of your time at the seminar.
Brian
That IHC was one of the beauties that Chuck tried to image and wasn't satisfied, Rick. The class was down to only a couple functional light sources at that point in time. That was also the day he was roused from bed by the fire alarm and he might not have been at his best. 2 weeks wore me out without the fire alarm. Did anybody ever say the Summer Seminars were dull?
David
Day 12
As expected, there were lots of sleepy people on the bus for the Denver Mint tour. As we drove north, the rules for the tour were read to us. Almost everything needed to be left on the bus. We had to wait for a couple people that drove up, to join the group. We were walked through security in groups of four and rode an elevator to a meeting room. We met our tour guides and the plant manager. There was a question and answer period. There were some good questions. I asked about the special collector products, since I seem to have so much trouble getting mine. The mint sends product to a contractor that adds the final packaging products and transports them to a distribution center.
The tour started with the materials used to produce blanks. The rolls are received and stacked on docks and transported by fork lift to the press when needed. Blanks are punched and riddled for defects. Web scraps all appear to collect in a separate bin, so the large webbing pieces may be a thing of the past. Blanks moved to the upset presses. This part of the process didn’t appear to be 100% automated. Blanks are then squeezed as the raised rim is applied. More riddling occurs and inspection occurs. There is also a cleaning stage in here somewhere that I never saw. When the tour was finishing, we saw the piles of lime, detergent and other materials used. Next was the actual striking press. We were allowed to handle coins at most of these steps. I picked up a few Lincolns from the collection bin and there didn’t appear to be many that weren’t MS69RD, and I’m pretty good at high end submissions. I guess all the marks are added as the coins drop into the tote bins, the counting and bagging area and the private companies that roll from the Kevlar bags. We made a stop at the die station, along the way, and examined two dies, one with a chip in the center and one with an early stage die crack. I asked how many dies are defaced at once and the operator told me 25, so they must run the defacing equipment quite regularly. I asked if he had any dies used for mint set production and said no. We also stopped at the waffling equipment. They were doing Lincolns at that time. Just before we got to the waffling station, there was a transport bin that must have had at least 3 different coin types in various different production stages. There were also coins dated prior to 2006 in the bin. Some were several years prior to 2006. A bin full of errors just waiting to happen! Next stop was the counting area. Huge machines filling giant Kevlar bags with a ton of coins. I asked where the mint set production coins were and found they are produced in the high security portion of the facility. No chance for dies or coins to mix with business production. One of the last stops was an area where shipping to the Federal Reserve branches is staged. They had the shipping orders for several days posted for viewing. And then there were skids of 2001 Kennedy’s. Lots of them stitched into the old style canvas bags. Production floor portion of the tour was finished and were viewed some of the historic portions of the facility. The old pressing room which will be used for the 2007 mint set packaging and the conference room with the facility manager pictures.
Last was a quick trip around the block to the mint souvenir store. It’s run by a contractor and has most of the mint product catalog as well as shirts, mugs and things like that.