And a bit of interesting silver, Germania's Mythical Forest 4 coin set.

They are lovely, a particular favourite of mine.

this is a lovely set and a good price

Just to think I worked as a botanical garden tour guide but passed on these Mythical Forest creations.

Periodic Table wrote:Just to think I worked as a botanical garden tour guide but passed on these Mythical Forest creations.

You can probably still get them if you hunt around. The Oak leaf tends to be a bit pricey off Ebay but the others aren't so bad.

tray wrote:this is a lovely set and a  good price

Priceless even.

Silverlocks wrote:You can probably still get them if you hunt around.  The Oak leaf tends to be a bit pricey off Ebay but the others aren't so bad.

I will look into it @Silverlocks. And I appreciate that you put them all together.

Periodic Table wrote:

Silverlocks wrote:You can probably still get them if you hunt around.  The Oak leaf tends to be a bit pricey off Ebay but the others aren't so bad.

I will look into it @Silverlocks. And I appreciate that you put them all together.

I have to admit to being a bit of a Germania fanboy - the Knights of the Past and Valkyries series are pretty fab as well.

I've got a set of Lady Gs and Allegories as well, although they're a little more boring than the Knights and Valkyries sets.

The 2023 Knights should arrive in the next few weeks, and I've got it on order, so maybe I'll post a set of those when I get it.

Silverlocks wrote:

I have to admit to being a bit of a Germania fanboy - the Knights of the Past and Valkyries series are pretty fab as well.

I've got a set of Lady Gs and Allegories as well, although they're a little more boring than the Knights and Valkyries sets.

Lady G took a long time in rounds to finally put her sword in the ground.  I passed on those and the knights. But I got the one and two ounce Hildegard rounds and the Italia & Germania one ounce allegory. It's Germania bars that I'm really into.

Periodic Table wrote:

Silverlocks wrote:

I have to admit to being a bit of a Germania fanboy - the Knights of the Past and Valkyries series are pretty fab as well.

I've got a set of Lady Gs and Allegories as well, although they're a little more boring than the Knights and Valkyries sets.

Lady G took a long time in rounds to finally put her sword in the ground.  I passed on those and the knights. But I got the one and two ounce Hildegard rounds and the Italia & Germania one ounce allegory. It's Germania bars that I'm really into.

I've got a little 100g bar as a sort of pocket piece or paperweight.  Maybe I'll get some more bars if they come up at the right price. I never got any of the 2oz Germania coins as they're kind of pricey - really at a price where you could buy a sov or some other fractional gold coin. They are nice, though.

Silverlocks wrote:I've got a little 100g bar as a sort of pocket piece or paperweight.  Maybe I'll get some more bars if they come up at the right price.  I never got any of the 2oz Germania coins as they're kind of pricey - really at a price where you could buy a sov or some other fractional gold coin.  They are nice, though.

Excellent bar for a paperweight. I totally agree that the 2oz Germania cost is crazy. Especially compared to what you said about buying fractional gold. I have to plead guilty for not being prudent on a few occasions.

I do like Germania and have most of it. I only have one 1oz bar the bigger are very expensive, beautiful and always sells out before I get my act together
Can you post a pic of knights 2023, it's the only one I haven't got l, wasn't sure of all that gold

tray wrote:I do like Germania and have most of it. I only have  one 1oz bar the   bigger are very expensive, beautiful and always sells out before I get my act together
Can you post a pic of knights 2023, it's the only one I haven't got l, wasn't sure of all that gold

It hasn't arrived yet, and I've just bought the BU version without any gilding.

And here is another set of pics of the reverses, taken with diffuse lighting - a cone made from tracing paper, and a single spot.

That has really brought out the detail @Silverlocks . I've been half hoping/expecting another series with coniferous trees to complement this series, but nothing seems to be in the offing at present.

The Cat's Mother wrote:That has really brought out the detail  @Silverlocks . I've been half hoping/expecting another series with coniferous trees to complement this series, but nothing seems to be in the offing at present.

Not seen any indication of such, although I see they have another series on witches coming out.

Flat lighting is good when you've got coins with a shiny surface, as it's much better at showing detail than specular reflection.  However, you don't want it too flat.  This process just has a conical diffuser made from tracing paper (you can also buy plastic ones).  By shining a spot on it, you get a gradient of luminance in your diffused light, which gives some contrast by incident angle and shows off the detail better.

The setup I used for this coin didn't have the panel lights, only one spot.

@Silverlocks, your method of photography is spot-on. I saw a couple vids about setting up white paper in photoshooting coins. Never knew about the utilization of a cone. Thanks for sharing this.

It looks very good @Silverlocks , but I think my box brownie would struggle. You are obviously well practised in this.

The Cat's Mother wrote:It looks very good  @Silverlocks , but I think my box brownie would struggle. You are obviously well practised in this.

Still figuring it out, really.  I got the camera about 6 months or so ago.  If you've got an account on The Silver Forum, I've put up quite a bit there, and on some of the FB groups as well.

Periodic Table wrote:@Silverlocks, your method of photography is spot-on. I saw a couple vids about setting up white paper in photoshooting coins. Never knew about the utilization of a cone. Thanks for sharing this.

I found a video about using this type of arrangement for product photos of things with mirror surfaces, and thought it might work for coins.  So, I made up a little prototype, and it works quite well.

Silverlocks wrote:

The Cat's Mother wrote:It looks very good  @Silverlocks , but I think my box brownie would struggle. You are obviously well practised in this.

Still figuring it out, really.  I got the camera about 6 months or so ago.  If you've got an account on The Silver Forum, I've put up quite a bit there, and on some of the FB groups as well.

No, I'm not on the Silver Forum. I'm sure there are good things there, but bits of it didn't appeal at all. I'm not on any social media either; don't have a smartphone, and don't even have a TV. How do I manage to stay alive?  
TCM = DinosaursRUs

Silverlocks wrote:I found a video about using this type of arrangement for product photos of things with mirror surfaces, and thought it might work for coins.  So, I made up a little prototype, and it works quite well.

I like the fact that your cone is self supporting. It will make it easy for me to setup. Please advise where I can find flat lights like yours.

The Cat's Mother wrote:

Silverlocks wrote:

The Cat's Mother wrote:It looks very good  @Silverlocks , but I think my box brownie would struggle. You are obviously well practised in this.

Still figuring it out, really.  I got the camera about 6 months or so ago.  If you've got an account on The Silver Forum, I've put up quite a bit there, and on some of the FB groups as well.

No, I'm not on the Silver Forum. I'm sure there are good things there, but bits of it didn't appeal at all. I'm not on any social media either; don't have a smartphone, and don't even have a TV. How do I manage to stay alive?  
TCM = DinosaursRUs

It's got its share of wingnuts (well, the PMs racket in general has a big wingnut demographic), and some like to wear their heart on their sleeve, but otherwise it's a pretty good community.

Periodic Table wrote:

Silverlocks wrote:I found a video about using this type of arrangement for product photos of things with mirror surfaces, and thought it might work for coins.  So, I made up a little prototype, and it works quite well.

I like the fact that your cone is self supporting. It will make it easy for me to setup. Please advise where I can find flat lights like yours.

Most of this stuff is available off Amazon.  The lights have built-in batteries and can be charged from an ordinary phone charger.  The neumowa panel lights ones come with a clip you can use to attach to the back of a smart phone.  This is somewhat useful if you're taking pics from a phone, as they can block light, so the panel light attaches under the phone.

Gold tends to confuse the software that auto-calibrates the colour temperature, so you will want a grey card to set this.  All of these lights can be set to 5600k.

Panel lights: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08BLCJ43C

Spot lights: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09N8LXD67

Ring light: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09GK4S2T1

Adjustment arm: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B091333W3X

Low tripod :https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07S685XRC

Small ball head for low tripod: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B081TWV39T

Medium tripod (comes with a ball head): https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B1TGP2DQ

Heavier desktop tripod (suitable for the camera): https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MSAEZN8

Stronger arca swiss plate (stops the camera from slipping on the plate): https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07NL86VX1

Basic colour neutral grey card: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01DPV5PUA

I've got a few other odds and sods, but that would be the main items that get used for the camera work.  Most of these things aren't terribly pricey individually, a few hundred quid's worth in total.

Here a couple of shots of the Chestnut and Linden leaves using different (and slightly more complex) lighting.  These coins are really photogenic.


More specular lighting - one panel and two spots.



More diffuse lighting - two spots through a cone shaped diffuser.