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Thanks Jaggy, it means a hell of a lot that others on here rate my efforts! I have some way to go to get to BRG standards but steadily getting there I think! The 1902 matt proof half crown, really pleased with the Rev of this one:

@RLC35 So, I had had a play for an hour or so with the Raynox DCR-250 Macro Attachment last night and for the money (£45 ish) it does seem to help bring out the detail in higher res pictures on smaller coins. I did taking some pictures of farthings but found they were out of focus due to the tripod being on carpet and every time I focused the camera any movement caused the carpet to flex and the tripod to move. I am new to the DSLR game (previously used a bridge SLR point and shoot) so I am still getting my head around white balance etc The pics below were taken with the Raynox. The lighting still isn't correct, I am having to play around with it for both Bronze and Silver, but it should give some indication of the performance of the attachment regarding detail levels. Hopefully as I get the light and focus issue sorted the pictures will improve. This is my current set up: Nikon D3100, 14mp Res Raynox DCR-250 Macro Attachment 2 x LED lamps with 6500k bulbs Lightbox to bounce/diffuse the light

I agree, it also now appears to have some 'life' to it, keep going!

Definitely right there Nick, such a difficult task capturing the true lustre. I don't know if you already have, Paul, but take a look at the different lighting colours for different metals. I find white lights work amazingly with silver bits and lights with a slightly yellow tinge work much better for copper/bronze. For example, first picture was using an 7W LED white light and the second using a regular 500w(?) house light bulb. The setup and location was the same, just the lights were changed, lots of difference. Both coins are practically the same in terms of lustre. You can see the juxtaposition just from the background which is just a thick white piece of card. Grey in one picture and brown in the other, neither of which is the actual colour

Yes, I'm obsessed, I know! New camera from Coinery, and I think my best yet pics of the difficult-to-capture 1902 matt proof crown

Personally I think that's much better. Also a cracking coin

I tried the 3500k lamp tonight and these were the early results, I still need to work on the manual focus:

:-)

Lustre is not easy to capture, as it is effectively the result of light being reflected in slightly different directions from the surface. The camera only "sees" those reflections which fit within its limited field of view. It could be that you need to take your photos in a place that has more ambient light, or you could try moving slightly further away from the coin.

Not the nicest looking penny but one i will always keep. Its the actual coin that was used to illustrate OBV 10 in the Michael freeman book "The victorian bronze penny ".

This may help https://goldsovereigns.co.uk/fakes.html plenty of info here on fake sovereigns.

Here is a composite image from the two posted images on tinypic: It's a 25 year (Silver Jubilee) medal commemorating the reign of George V (1910-1935). Never seen this particular reverse before. I like it.

This coin illustrated on plate 14, item 13 of “A View of the Silver Coinage of England” is listed under unknown mints and referred to as “Amongst the very great variety of this King’s money, altho’ we meet many very rude, and of bad workmanship, yet we think none of them comes up to the halfcrown No 13, the barbarous work of which was certainly that of a smith and not of an engraver.” This coin engraving is also used by martin Folkes in ‘Table of Silver Coins,… Plate XXVI, Fig 5 in 1763. - These plates were prepared before his death in 1754. Ruding in the following century republished the Folkes’ plates, in the three editions of his work. Although now commonly referred to as the ‘Blacksmith’s halfcrown’, in 1861, Aquilla Smith assigned this piece to Ireland’s Rebellion necessity series and specifically to the Confederate Catholics in Kilkenny circa 1642. I believe the coin is identifiable by the weak striking of the horse’s raised foreleg, and the unusual reverse decoration of ‘wheat ears’ or as Maurice Bull describes them, three lilly buds, upper left and right on reverse. (Bull 19A, Rev 2). The coin’s known provenance is Marsham, Murdoch, Hilton-Price, and Lockett. In the Lockett catalogue June1957 this piece is described as “Reputed to be the finest known example of this ill-struck series, very rare”.