Latest efforts at taking pics of shiny coins !
This is a 1923 Peace dollar (taken with a Ricoh Caplio R5J digital camera)
Just gone through a session with the camera and jotting down some stuff while it’s all fresh…
I’m pretty happy with results so far, still looking to improve though. What I’m after is an image on the computer screen that’s as close as I can get to how the coin looks to me in real life…
Anyway I reckon that once you nut out what camera settings (details below, if they’re of interest) work well with the light sources you’re using, it mostly comes down to playing around with those light sources to bring out the detail of each coin.
Coin designs, even on uncirculated examples, don’t have a lot of relief and even less on the worn ones – so I’ve found that changing the angles of the lighting can really help to show what’s there when you look at the coin in your hand.
Sometimes bouncing the light off a sheet of white paper helps, too!
Currently using these camera settings:
Macro, Spot AF, Neutral colour balance, Incandescent 2, ISO 400
On a tripod, 2 sec delay
2 halogen desk lights in addition to “normal” room illumination
pre1946silver.com 
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