Tag: coins

Tom | Flickr

TomD

 

I’ve has some fun and success with coins. I use a lightbox and a frame surrounding it made out of 1” PVC to support lights.

 

 

Tom | Flickr

TomD

Gold and Silver Coins

I’ve been acquiring/collecting gold and silver for the past 21 years. My motivation initially was to keep a store of PM (precious metals) as a hedge against economic “problems” but I quickly discovered that there was an aesthetic component to some of the coins. My 1st purchases were 100 and 1000 oz silver bars (in 2003 cheap) but they were as photogenic as bricks. When I discovered the offerings from some of the major mints around the work, it was a “Whoa” moment. So I started to photo them. It worked out that 2003 was right about the time digital cameras were becoming capable instruments.

Amusing that the owner of APMEX (American Precious Metals Exchange), the largest online seller of PM’s sent me an email in around 2006 asking if I would do all his product photography for him. I was happy for the recognition but I was a 50 something year old Civil Engineer at the time and I appreciate the offer but——

 

 

4 Ducat-  This is a restrike of a 1915 4 Ducat Austrian gold coin featuring Emperor Franz Joseph. The coin contains .44 oz (net) of gold. I’ve got a number of European gold fractionals (fractional oz) and some are quite nice if you manage to get one in good shape after 100-140 years. This coin is from the Austrian Mint

 

2011 Kookaburra- From the Australian National Mint. The Kookaburra is just 1 of several yearly silver coin offerings from the Mint. All of them are incredibly nice and popular. This series started in 1993, different images each year, 1 oz of silver. As an aside, when I say one oz in the context of PM’s, I’m talking about Troy oz, not standard oz., the difference is 28.35 grams per standard oz vs 31.13 per Troy.

 

ATB Florida- US Mint, ATB stands for America the Beautiful as in the state quarters  issued for several years. This isn’t a standard issue quarter but a 5 oz silver replica but still minted by the US Mint.  Some of the designs, like this Florida one, are quite nice, but others not so much.

 

Britannia- By the British National Mint, one oz 24 kt gold. Britannia is the British equivalent of Uncle Sam. The coins were issued yearly, most years of different designs, in both gold and silver. A lot of the coins from this series are spectacular.

 

Azteca Calendario- This came in different weights up to a kilogram, this one is 5 oz. You can find all sorts of base metal knockoffs of this coin but the real ones from the Casa De Moneda De México (Mexican National Mint) are fairly rare. I had a Mexican contact and we swapped  coins with each other for years. The Casa has  some beautiful coins and popular coins in its catalogue.

 

Eagles- Silver American Eagles that is, from the US Mint. Probably the most popular, recognizable, desired and produced coins in the world. If you’re going to buy limited silver, get this one. Recognized everywhere and easily traded for cash. When I first started buying these, I paid $5 each, now they’re pushing $40.

 

GAE- As in Gold American Eagle. Ditto everything about the silver eagles. They are in 22 kt gold or 91% but the weight of gold is one full oz. I like that alloy, I’ve got 24 kt gold but it is too soft. I dropped a 24 kt coin once and it dented the he** out of it. Luckily, that particular coin had little numismatic premium and it was still 1 oz of gold after the drop.

 

Maple Gold- This is the Canadian version of the GAE. These are .9999 gold. It was one of these that I dropped. This is a fairly early one and the image of the Queen is what is known as the “Hottie” Queen. The image was updated as the years went on to reflect the aging queen.

 

Of all these coins shown, only the Kookaburra and Calendario have any premium attached. All the rest, you could buy for close to spot price. For some reason, some years of SAE’s are rarer and the coins can cost you more. But just skip these years.

I might do another coin photo post down the line but I’ve got thousands of shots of beautiful coins and I don’t think that is the direction Photog wants his site to go in. But there are some incredibly beautiful coins series out there, Chinese Pandas, a number of private mint series, Britannias, ATB’s, Australian Lunar series, Australian Kangaroos, Canadian Predator series, Mexican, European coin types beyond count.

I was extremely lucky, one particular friend (now departed unfortunately), influenced me and got me started when I could accumulate most of this when PM’s were a fraction of current cost. I paid $250 for my 1st oz of gold.

TomD

Tom | Flickr

TomD

“Speaking of totem poles” As my mother used to say when faced with a comment from out of the blue.

“or worthless ducats that cannot be exchanged for anything meaningful” Some ducats can be exchanged for quite a lot. This is a 4 Ducat Franz Joseph gold coin from my collection

On the next post is my take on a silver proof version of the Florida State US quarter and a really amusing silver Mexican coin.

I’ve got several thousand shots of different coins like that.

Amusing, but about 15 years ago, APMEX, the largest online supplier of precious metal products tried to hire me as their product photographer but I was already employed as a Civil Engineer.

This photo was purchased by a Mexican Publisher for inclusion in a Mexican elementary school level arithmetic text book.

If you look around the perimeter it shows the Mayan counting system. Base 5 apparently but humorously, they assign minor deities to each number.

 

I’ve got a Mexican contact for trading interesting stuff back and forth.