Hope I don't overload you guys with pictures but, to me, coin discussions are sorta dry without images. I've got a number of series that I try to keep current on but the 2011 Panda and Britannia were either out of stock or not introduced yet when I last ordered some coins. Then the price of silver got so high that I frankly thought the mediocre 2011 Britannia wasn't worth the money. So silver went on sale and I thought it time to acquire the latest of my sets. They were out of Koalas, blast, I still don't have any of those. The latest Britannia based on the various online picts looked to me like the girl your mother told you "had a nice personality". Got it today and on first appraisal, it's nicer than the online picts led me to believe but nowhere near the top of my list. When shooting it, I tried some special lighting and it seems to have worked and added the missing elements to the coin design. See what you think. The Panda is a credible effort and totally in keeping thematically and artistically with the previous years. It is 6:00 Saturday evening here and it's, what, Sunday noon there? Different outlook, what?
+1 Nice work! i've always wondered, what is the black part made of on the panda coin? is it paint? or just a some type of brushed silver?
The black part of the panda coin, is silver and there is no point - its just the way light reflected ( or nonreflected ) of that part of the coin. *** TomD great photos !! - If you lived in Australia, id try to commission you to take professional photos of some of my numismatic coins that i have ( ancients and medievals and some toned coins ) but since you are in the US, registered postage cost would be prohibitive.
No, not paint, nothing so crude. It's in the stamping, possibly something functionally similar to polarizing but definitely on a micro level. When you hold a coin in your hands to look at it from various angles, the areas that appear black in this photo will be black only at certain angles. Other angles appear as reflectively silvery as the rest of the coin. Definitely high tech and tough to counterfeit, at least for now.
I enjoyed the photos, especially the Brittania. Your lighting really works well. Best wishes, Peter Anthony http://www.pandacollector.com
