Photographing a partially silvered coin

[daverino]

I just got this Maximian follis from Nick Molinari's eBay auction. His photo shows a coin with a puzzling mottled surface. The coin obviously had some good features as well as some rough spots but what most attracted me was the strong portrait. So often these "big head' style coins are merely caricatures. It turns out the coin has a lot of old silvering which creates a strange mix of glossy and matte surfaces that effectively camouflage the sculpture beneath. I tried several approaches that would combine the right mix of natural color and reflected light to bring out the quality of the relief without compromising too much the in-hand appearance of the coin.

The first photo is from the seller. It is accurate but depressing - dark and confusing. My photo below it, with the green background, was done almost entirely in reflected light. The outline of the design and the quality of the surface show up well but the natural appearance of the coin has been "washed out"

Because of the patches of silvering the images were very sensitive to changes in lighting angle and intensity. I made the last two photos with the coin on my knee in front of the window. The first used a more angled light which heightens the relief and shows off the Genio more clearly.

The last photo is, I think the best since it shows up the sculptural qualities of the coin and deals realistically with the partial silvering as well.

Any Opinions?

[Steve E]

I like the last the best too!

You might want to try having the light coming from the front/left on the rev.(instead of behind). It may show more detail and be more natural looking IMO.
I think the obv. is fine

~Steve

[Jay GT4]

Yup the last one is the best.  Just out of curiosity can you adjust your cameras depth of field?  I run into this problem also, with a shallow depth of field the roughness or different textures cause the whole thing to be a bit off focus.  By giving it a bit more depth this sharpens up (most times!).  These coins are always tough, I have an Antony denarius I just can't get right.

[Andrew McCabe]

I made the last two photos with the coin on my knee in front of the window.

Any Opinions?

Nice denim jeans    (well you asked for opinions)

I've never found a satisfactory solution for mixed-patina or glossy-patina coins except one: plaster casts. From the results of others it appears to be the only guaranteed solution to taking a clear and detailed picture and the results are almost always immeasurably better, so much better that rather than waste hours and hours trialling lighting setups you (and I) may be quicker just making the cast. Clive Stannard has a presentation on making plaster casts here:
http://stannard.info/website/Presentations.html

[daverino]

Thanks for the comments, guys. My camera is about two steps above a cell phone job and so I cannot get much "depth of field". I would interpret this as saying that half-tones, or subtle grades between highlight and shadow aren't picked up very well. So even while in focus there is a certain flatness to the image that is hard to avoid. With more sophisticated cameras it seems you do get this depth of field. Good examples are some of Steve's coin photos which I was admiring.

Andrew, I shall investigate coin casting. It sounds like fun and cheap to boot - perfect for someone who buys his pants at the Salvation Army.

So here is the final version without the trousers. I finally figured out how to crop the images cleanly on my PAINT program

Regards, Dave