@Cleisthenes, but also just to celebrate.
Look, this is how it is: I got this camera in February. Now, ten weeks later, I finally got a photo, this
obverse, that makes me really happy--and not just because the Tertullus die of c. 198 AD is, in my opinion, a great
Julia Domna (and her first tetrassarion-size one in
Moesia Inferior: is it any wonder she gets portrayed as wrapping SS around her little finger? I got this coin for my Tertullus dies page, in progress.
Anyhow, with a better camera be prepared to become a better photographer. This is with Nikon's 60mm AF Macro lens which with its camera, a D80, is devoted to taking as nearly definitive images of my coins as I can learn to do. This is f 11 at 1/5 sec, copy stand, electronic cable release, AND delayed shutter release. The rest of the learning process is lighting. Sharpness + nuance + rendering of relief: none can be sacrificed for the other(s). The coin is darker, but on many monitors it needs to be this light.
Pat L.