Fuzzy Focus

[murphy]

I've got a 5 mega pixel Sony DSC-P92 Cyber-shot that I use with a tripod trying to take pics of coins laying on the dining room table. The pictures look alright after I transfer them to my PC, but when I blow them up trying to see the details, they look fuzzy! I use macro mode. I set the timer to take the picture rather than take the chance that I may move the camera and make it shake. I've tried adjusting some of the settings to try and get a sharper picture. What they heck am I doing wrong? Shouldn't I expect as clear a picture with my equipment as I see other people getting?

Oh yeah, here's my best find. It's a 1922 plain:



Actually, I'm new at this and my best find is probably a 1998 Close AM; not sure what grade.

I got a question also about a penny I found that was missing the layer of copper that usually covers all pennies. This looked like a solid zinc cent. Any market for them? Thanks for any help I receive.

Oh yeah, another question. I find a lot of pennies that look very blurry, sort of like a weak strike but all over on both sides evenly. I found one yesterday that was noticeably smaller than a normal penny and all devices look blurry, sorta like it's been melted, but I doubt that's what happened. Can anyone explain this to me? I scanned a pic of it with a 1969-s that has some doubling on the first 9. Anyone care to comment about that too?

[coop]

Murphy: One of the first questions I would ask about your images without a microscope is, do you use the zoom on your camera? If you do then that may be where the fuzzyness comes in. With the zoom and then enlarging the image tends to make it blurry. I would try to not use the zoom, try to get as close to the coin as possible in macro. Reduce the lighting in the room to a single source, and use a very dark backround for copper. They tend to like Black the best. It allows the color to come through better. I use a ramp to hold the coin to direct the light from the source, to the coin, then into the camera. What is a ramp? here is an image of one that I use to give you an idea of what it is.

I made it from a 2X2 with the edge opened a little to create an angle to glance the light off to the camera. I use Photoshop to edit the image to enlarge/reduce the image. I also use a very high pixel number on my camera. My camera takes imaes on disks. With high setting of the pixels I can only get about 4-5 images per disk. On other settings I can get about 30 images per disk.
I hold my camera. Moving the camera during shooting does affect the image, but after a few images you get better at hold and shooting. This is necessary as I hold the camera to take images through the microscope. Taking images is like riding a bicycle. The more you do it the better you get. You will find in a short time that will a little help and a lot of practice you will see improvement. You will notice that somethings work, other things don't. So TRY, TRY, TRY untill you get what you want. Ask questions, that is one way to help improve quicker. As we don't have the same equipment, sometimes you have to improvise till it does work, or someone else can help solve the problem.
The 1922 plain looks like a planchet. (Instruck coin) A lot of Cents from that year were very weak due to over use of the die or over cleaning them. It is more valuable to me to find a well struck one than a weak struck one. I guess to each his own.
The unplated one. I see them sell on Ebay every now and then, but wonder how many of them have been dipped in acid. In the years before the 1950's it was common for college students to dip a Cent in acid in chemistry class to be able to buy a soda. In those days they only cost 7-10 cents. With the acid bath the coin lost thickness, diameter and detail. I've got a few of the acid dipped cents and a quarter that someone dipped. I don't have any images of them on my web space right now though.
Coins that are blurry. Could be Acid dipped as I covered, or worn dies causing the details to be weak or it could be due to a strike thru error. Usually grease is to blame for this. Here is an example.

There are also weak strikes and trial strikes, where they are testing the strike of a machine.

There is also brockerage where a planchet gets stuck on the obverse die and tries to strike through it on the next planchet.
Also reffered to as a capped die.

You can see the image of the memorial on the obverse, but the reverse is totally normal. That is just a few of the things that can make a coin fuzzy look. Probably others that have escaped my mind right now.
Coins with doubling could be a doubled die, or it could be machine doubling. Funny you should mention the year 1969 as that is one year there is a rare doubled die and several that are machine doubled that year. On a real doubled die, sometimes there is notching on the corners of the devices (Numbers/Letters) of the coin.

Sometimes the letters/numbers are wider.


All depending on how the hub maded the die. Over to far in any direction can produce a double die. But on machine doubling it seems that the machine itself make the image doubled and sometimes never the same each time. Here is a few examples of machine doubling.



So when comparing machine doubled and doubled dies we note that machine doubled coins have a step down doubling effect. They don't bring any priemum they are worth what it says on the reverse of the coin. A doubled die has notching or doubling of letters, or may be the devices are enlarged. These are collectable and desired bringing small to very large premiums The larger the seperation and desireablity of the DD, the higher the price. The site has a designation on it for Doubled dies. Look at the listings for DATE-1DO(OR1DR)-NUMBER on the "Departments---Lincoln Cents---Date guide section
Here is an example of one of the listings.
http://www.coppercoins.com/lincoln/diestate.php?date=1972&die_id=1972p1do002&die_state=mds
This one is the second die for 1972. Not as known, so lower in price. Hope this helps answer your questions Murphy. If not ask again.

[coppercoins]

The fuzzyness is because no matter how many pixels your camera can take photos at, it is still taking them at 72 pixels per inch. If you blow the 72 pixels per inch up to 100 pixels per inch you are having to add 28 pixels across to every inch. When you do that the computer has to blend those in, and the way it does that is by adding a pixel into a gap then coloring it half way between the colors of the two pixels it split. in simple terms, it blurs the photo.

The only way to get good close-up shots of a coin is with a microscope. No amount of zooming in with a camera alone will help enough.

[murphy]

Thanks very much.
What causes Lincoln in the pic above to look like The Elephant Man??? The coin has not been hand altered! It is smaller than a normal penny and has so much ...distortion? that ya can only tell the last number in the date 8 and it has a mint mark D?. Could it be caused by the operator setting up the die and getting too much pressure causing these abnormal effects?

[coop]

Murphy: Looks kind of like it spent too much time in shop. LOL Probably someone took out their frustrations on it. Sometimes the unexplainable can't be explained.

[coppercoins]

Your coin is not a mint error. It was caused by a method known as "spooning," where the edges of the coin are tapped with a spoon or hammer until the rims start to move inward.

Remember that there are a lot of people out there with a lot of time on their hands, and also remember that people put cents through a lot of torture because of their low face value. Most of what you are going to find that looks odd will be people's attempts at creating errors on their own or people using cents for crafts, tools etc. I've seen them used as shims, washers, and all sorts of other utilitarian things. They are cheaper and more readily accessible than the real thing at the hardware store.