2022 Show & Tell
Items shown by club members at 2022 club meetings.
May
These items were photographed with a Kodak 10-inch “ring light” unless otherwise noted for comparison purposes. A couple of items were photographed earlier during testing of the light.
Lighting comparison for Statue of Liberty 125th Anniversary proof medal.
Left photos: Single swing-arm lamp; Right photos: ring light.
In this case, the ring light gives much better illumination.
Ring light photos of circulated 1944 half dollar and proof 1960 half dollar.
The result is OK for the circulated coin, but really impressive for the proof coin!
Single lamp (left) and ring light (right) photos of a Civil War Token (CWT 46/335).
The ring light photos are too “flat” and don’t show important details such as the metal “flow lines” on the obverse. This is a drawback of uniform illumination with low relief items.
Ring light photos of two slabbed Morgan Dollars (1879-S and 1896).
The ring light is too small to properly illuminate the entire slab (so we’re not showing those photos). The coin itself is OK in both cases, but the cartwheel luster is difficult to see with “flat” illumination. Note that the 1896 is cleaned and has dulled luster to begin with.
The ring light can give very nice results for some larger medals, including those with higher relief, such as the 1920s American Orchid Society medal at left.
The Apollo space medal at right has some “embedments” of special material which reflect the uniform light quite well.
Finally, this 4-ounce silver replica of a well-known $10 banknote is too big to get a really good photo with the ring light, but a satisfactory result was obtained by tilting the item forward to avoid bad reflections (off of the silver itself and the holder).
August
These items were photographed with a Kodak 10-inch “ring light.”
1794 British halfpenny token, catalog DH-35 from Suffolk, Ipswich, graded PCGS MS65RB, with Conder’s name on the reverse. At least for American collectors, tokens from this entire (and extensive) British series are normally referred to as “Conder tokens.”
1955 Double Die Lincoln Cent. PCGS Genuine Repaired XF Detail.
1942/1 Mercury Dime. PCGS AU53.
1943-S Uncirculated Lincoln Cent (steel wartime variety) and 1943-S Jefferson Nickel (silver alloy wartime variety), PCGS MS67.
Top: 2019 U.S. Space Force challenge coin.
Bottom: Indian Head/Buffalo design 1-ounce silver round.
November
These items were photographed with a Kodak 10-inch “ring light.”
Note: Some of these items (but not the gold coin!) were raffle prizes.
1927 Quarter Eagle ($2.50 gold coin), PCGS MS64 CAC.
1893 Indian Head Cent and 1917 (Type 1) Liberty Standing Quarter.
1945-D and 1945-S Wartime Jefferson Nickels.
1963-D Franklin Half Dollar and 1982-D George Washington commemorative half dollar.
U.S. Mint 1981 Ronald Reagan inauguration and White House medals.
Santa Ana Army Air Base 75th Anniversary (1942-2017) medal.