LawrenceChard

Sure white boxes or light boxes are a well known way to get all around light on small objects. It's main drawback is that it can produce very flat and featureless effects. As coins have only slighty raised designs, this does not work well. For objects with more pronounced 3D shapes, I believe it can be effective. Using umbrella type diffusers and reflectors gives more control. I understand your comments about "beyond the scope of the basic article". A problem with photography is that no single solution gives perfect results under all conditions. We often resort to a degree of trial and error, in order to achieve optimum results, and even then, there is almost always a trade-off between near perfection and time. Almost all of our photos are produced using some compromise. None of this detracts from your very helpful guides to producing better coin photos. Keep it up! 😎

I should have gone to SpecSavers! 😎 P.S. I was writing it from memory!

Betts 1760 Gold One Ounce Bullion "Button" Bars - Good Enough to Eat? Along with @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer 100 Gram Betts Gold Bars, which we recently showed, we also acquired a small number of some of their one ounce "button" bars, square shaped but with rounded corners, reminiscent of 50 gram Rothschild bars: and... Very basic cast / poured bars, but all our staff who saw them thought they looked cute, and almost good enough to eat: The packaging looks strangely familiar! 😎

I was keeping it simple. "Pure" white should work. Sure I could have added "or grey", but then you need to ensure you have a perfectly balanced grey. It is possible to buy "grey card" especially for colour balancing cameras. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_card 😎

Try shooting with a white background! 😎

You may be aware that there are donkeys in summer on Blackpool Beach, for kids' rides. They traditionally have brass name plaques on their nosebands. I hope one day to see one on a donkey called "Oatie" or possibly "Oti" because then it would be Donkey Oatie. Is the illustration correct because I thought that Don Quixote rode a donkey? 😎

I am open to offering so-called free postage or "Delivery without charge", if customers don't mind us putting the price up to the same levels as our less transparent or principled competitors. Although I would prefer to remain pure! 😎

Tonight's meeting? 😎

The greyhounds should go faster! 😎

I find it interesting and amusing that I have seen quite a number of enquiries here on TSF about best place to buy bullion in Ireland, especially since Brexit helped to cause extra Customs complications and charges. Why: Well you have the high profile GoldCore in Dublin. Is there something wrong with them? It's good to see you mention @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer. I know we have extra paperwork to do now, even compared with before Brexit, and this now affects "exports" to Northern Ireland, which is crazy. I did note you were in Eire, as I still tend to call Ireland, as it is less ambiguous. The "additional charges on delivery" you mention; are these customs clearance fees? You did not mention whether you are thinking about gold bullion, which is VAT exempt, or whether you thinking about silver, which is taxable. I note the Topic is listed under "Home Precious Metals Gold", but it is still worth including the relevant metal in your title or text, something which about 50% of TSF members fail to realise. I am tempted to ask "what about all our competitors who offer so-called free postage", but I would be being facetious. I hope your final choice ends up with a local (to me) Blackpool dealer, even if it's only because there is also a Blackpool in Cork. Not many people will know that years ago we set up an Irish company which my cousin ran from Cork where he was living at the time. We did so little business there that we closed it down when he moved. You may find this useful: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/advice-guide-for-uk-bullion-investors/1041 Even though it is primarily for UK bullion investors. 😎

What am I missing? 😎

This may be helpful to you: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/advice-guide-for-uk-bullion-investors/1041 But is you are already into sovereigns, then your are on a good track. One ounce gold Britannias have lower premiums though. 😎

You might just find this useful: https://www.chards.co.uk/blog/advice-guide-for-uk-bullion-investors/1041 😎

sounds better than postage free! 😎

That's better. The BbP coin: I can't remember whether it was @James32 or @Darr3nG who said I was didactic, which was accurate, but I had not previously thought of applying the word to myself. I was hoping a few members would look at the relevant photo, and add their own comments before I did so. This is one good way to learn. 😎

I've heard that before! 😎

No. My brain said 1848, but my fingers didn't! I have corrected it, thanks! I probably should have included this link: https://24carat.co.uk/frame.php?url=1848godlessflorin.html 😎

This is getting more interesting. On the top photo, there is a strange raised lump near the top left, which would alert me to it being a probable fake, but... even more interesting.. There are some features on the lower coin which I also don't like! 😎

I would always expect at least some silver in any gold coin which had been made for circulation, or which were originally intended as circulating coins. This would include South African gold ponds and rands. This was most probably due to a number of reasons. Circulation gold coins needed to be an alloy for better durability. Copper and silver are highly compatible with gold, and are the most natural elements for gold alloys. Gold - copper alloys would be avoided because this makes the alloy too red rather than the attractive yellow of pure gold. People would expect gold coins to look like gold, and would mistrust gold coins which looked like copper. Silver also helps working properties, which are helpful in production processes. It was not usual to over-refine gold or silver, so refined gold would tend to contain small traces of silver. There was little point refining the gold further to eliminate the silver content, only to then add silver back in for its desirable properties. It is only relatively recently, when electrolytic refining became more common, that gold and other metals were highly refined. London Gold Delivery gold bars, for example, need only be a minimum of 995 parts per thousand, even though many mass produced bars are 999.9 ppt. The first "fine gold" were Canadian maples, introduced in 1979, and in their early years, they were "only" 999 ppt. It was only practical to make find gold coins which were not intended or designed for the wear and tear of circulation . Fine gold coins obviously contain no other elements, or only negligible amounts. 😎

And £270 is extortionate for a sovereign which is only half gold! 😎

I had to smile at: The Auction Mill is one of the Midwest's largest liquidators of restaurant, food service, hotel, laundromat and business liquidations. We are also a licensed federal firearms dealer who specializes in online firearms auctions. In addition to business liquidations and firearms, we are expert marketers of gold, silver, coins, currency, rare antiques and sports memorabilia. The Auction Mill is located in Omaha, NE and is in the process of opening an office in Orange County California. 1528 N. Saddle Creek Road Omaha, NE 68104 USA 4026908666 Liquidators? firearms dealer? Might be safer not to complain! 😎

Do you fancy posting a copy here? 😎

Yet Another Obvious Fake Sovereign by The Auction Mill of Omaha on LiveAuctioneers 1911-C Following a few recent reports of counterfeit os suspect gold sovereigns on a number of online auction sites, I signed up to LiveAuctioneers on the hope I could e-mail to alert them about this one: On that occasion, I said "I intended to send them (LiveAuctioneers) an e-mail similar to the one I sent to Invaluable, but I could not find an e-mail address for them on their website. It appears that they do not wish to know or receive communications! However, I have received a promotional e-mail from them every day since. One I just received had this as top of its list: 1911 King George V Gold Sovereign Estimate $2,000 - $5,000 https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/144008850_1911-king-george-v-gold-sovereign Here is a screenshot: The seller "The Auction House" does not even mention it is an Ottawa Canada mint. The estimate is ludicrous at $2000 - $5000 Even from the screenshot, I think most TSF members will be able to tell the coin is fake, but just in case, here are both photos: Obverse above, and: Reverse I thought I would use the "Ask a Question" button, which remended me that I tried last time, and could not get past this screen: I have altered my phone number, but even with a valid number, I could not proceed. Whether it's because this a dumb American website which does not recognise alien (non-US) numbers, addresses, postcodes, I don't know, and don't really care. If anyone else cares to try, you are welcome, let us know how you get on. 😎

I wasn't saying they did bother to fake half sovereigns, but almost every coin ever made will have been faked. And if not yet, then they will be on AliExpress next week. 😎

Defo! 😎