One Coin - Two Photos

lilolme · June 9, 2025 3:33PM

Do you have a couple of photos of a coin that show different aspects of it?
Not talking about out of focus, extra bad white balance, photoshop gymnastics or similar stuff.
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Messing around and killing time again with the snap-o'matic. Here are four coins that I tried to get those different aspects to come out in two different photos. Was kind of entertaining in a way but did turn on the speakers to help with that.
Once again I am not a photographer so no pro-pic's here.

First up the 1795. It is a darker coin but I like the circ-cam look. In hand with a good overhead light (not a dim one) some color can be seen when the light is kind of directly on the coin. Left photo is what it looks like generally. The only way I could get some of the color to come out (it is similar all around) was to center the light on Liberty or with light glare.

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Next I took the previous Morgan DMPL reflection photo and then took a better black and white type DMPL photo. I notice that sometimes proofs (and less occasionally DMPL) are done with the reflection type photo.

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And a Trade dollar (not my normal thing). Not so much change in the photo set up but surprising how much the color changed with what seemed like relatively small positioning and light changes. I should double check by comparing in hand to the photos but in hand it is normally between the two and closer to the darker one. But of course this can vary depending on how it is being viewed in hand.

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Yes I can count to two but I decided to add the third photo in the center (bottom) because I just thought it was a good one (normally have trouble getting that field color on something like this one to come out). The right photo is kind of what it looks like without direct lighting in the room. That is the field color is not easily seen. But the left one shows off the field color that is seen in hand with most any overhead lighting when tilted correctly. The left photo is in a semi-glare position to try and pull out more of the field color.

FlyingAl · June 9, 2025 3:44PM

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lermish · June 9, 2025 4:02PM

The_Dinosaur_Man · June 9, 2025 7:23PM

Mr_Spud · June 10, 2025 8:37AM

Same coin, different lighting. I took these pictures about 15 years ago or so

lilolme · July 20, 2026 2:43PM

A couple of older photos to add to the mix.

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Floridafacelifter · July 21, 2026 1:01PM

PCGS v Stacks

edwardjulio · July 21, 2026 4:38PM

TrueView vs FlyingAl

Floridafacelifter · July 21, 2026 5:59PM

How about same coin same source

Floridafacelifter · July 21, 2026 6:00PM

Pick the Flying Al

WinLoseWin · July 22, 2026 6:28AM

Coins often look various ways in different lighting and angles. That is why we ususally move them around when viewing.

Short of a video, it's why I usually take two or more types of lighting angles whenever getting around to photographing them.

Here is the Norweb Sheldon-24 1794 cent from years ago while I owned it raw for a short time. It had just about the ideal surface color and preservation aside from the punch mark at BE of LIBERTY. Not counting the punch, I considered it (using ANA rather than EAC grading) to be an XF-40 obverse (no frost visible) and XF-45 reverse (some frost visible). Someone later sent it to PCGS where it got AU Details - Damage.

The first set was head on lighting to show the detail, The second was to show the color. The third was in between the two. This is much easier to do on a raw coin than one in a slab. It could look like all of these views and more depending on how it was held.
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