Help with steps to make legend clearer

[Blayne W]

In  trying to identify coins I run into this issue more and more often.  Probably just learned ability but I want to know if there are any tricks to help identify the legends on coins when they are either faded or unclear.

I was working on this coin and believe it to be from Thessalonika. Similar to BMC 40 But I seem to have trouble matching it with any of the legends that I find.   I believe it is basically more that I cant quite clearly read the legend.  I have played with Gimp a little and Irfanview trying to sharpen but I wondered if anyone had a set procedure to help them in these situations.

The coin is 16.2mm 4.6g

[Pekka K]

Maybe this is of any help:

KINGS of MACEDON. Philip V. 221-179 BC. Æ (16mm, 4.48 g, 2h). Uncertain Macedonian mint. Struck after circa 211 BC. Helmeted head of the hero Perseus right / Horse prancing right. Mamroth, Bronzemünzen 72; SNG Alpha Bank 1063-6.

Pekka K

[Altamura]

There is no trick, just read what you see  .

If you are only able to decipher a part of a legend, then it helps to know what legends do exist. But this is a matter of experience.

And there are websites where you can work with partial legends. If you search in your case e.g. in acsearch with "*IΠΠ*" then you will at least find out that it is probably a coin from some Philip from Macedonia. Then you can go further.

Regards

Altamura

[Carausius]

As Altamura said, start with what you can see and work from there to fill-in the blanks.  I have an old (1929) book I use for Greek coins by Severin Icard that's designed to solve Greek coin inscriptions from partial inscriptions.  It's old school, but I like it. 

[shanxi]

With a binocular you can look at the coin from different angles, different light positions (preferably flat angles) will help a lot.

With a good digital image you can play with contrast and brightness (better then sharpening), and if your coin is multicoloured it might help to change the picture to grey scales.

[Blayne W]

Thanks everyone for chiming in here.  All of your opinions are great.  I figured it would help getting to know what to expect for legends and I have been trying to watch auctions every week to get exposed  to more and more of the coins that I'll see.  And then be able to help narrow the focus.   I am pretty decent on the Romans but its the Provincials and Greeks that I still struggle with

I will try playing with the contrast and brightness.   

Also that book from Severin Icard is now on my list to purchase.

I do try to use acsearch and coinarchive in my search.  I have been somewhat successful on just using google as well and searching through the images that it pops up to narrow the focus on.  Only problem I have there is knowing the terms that they have in the description.  On one of my recent provincial coins of Hadrian there is a fairly clear bird before the bust.  I searched for stork then eagle and only when I tried Ibis did I get on track.  But also after identifying it I was quite proud of myself   My wife got a rambling explanation, I got an eye roll.

Anyways thank you all for giving me some feedback and thanks Pekka for identifying that one for me.

[shanxi]

I am pretty decent on the Romans but its the Provincials and Greeks that I still struggle with

I do try to use acsearch and coinarchive in my search.

For provincials you should try RPC online. Not everything is already online, but the advanced search is quite good, and also allows to search for partial legends, including an input system for greek letters.

[djmacdo]

In regard to the coin that started this discussion, a good brushing with a stiff nylon brush ought to remove some of the mud on the reverse and reveal more of the legend.