Numismatic and History Discussion Forums > Coin Photography, Conservation and Storage

ANS Coin Photography using a mobile phone

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Anaximander:
Yes, it's true: The American Numismatic Society uses a mobile phone to photograph coins that they sell on their merchant's storefront.

The story was told in an ANS article published in their 'pocket change' online blog (here) and retold in the Numismatic Bibliomania Society in their weekly blog (here).  Not what I was expecting, but it makes sense. The whole process is kept, ideally, to five minutes per coin. It's all very economical. Personally, I shoot a dozen coins and their tags over something like half an hour, and try to keep processing time down to two minutes per coin, not including the batch process to import the photos and merge multiple exposures in high dynamic range (HDR).

I like that they transfer files wirelessly to their PC for photoprocessing and use a neutral gradient background on the finished product.

Ron C2:
Interestingly, they only do this for e-bay ads.  Their cataloguing setup is apparently much more complex.

Still, those are some nice images for a cell phone.  I notice they are also well backlighting the coins to cut down on post-processing requirements. 

SC:
I notice that it makes many of the coins look tooled.  Something about the resolution.  I have seen that with one or two small dealers too.

SC

Ron C2:
I don't know if it's what you are referring to, but lighted photography, like flashes, modelling lights, etc can make normal circulation scratching look more pronounced in certain circumstances.

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