Taking Coin Photos

Taking Coin Photos

I often find that it would be great if I could take pictures of my coins. Not for myself, but to post them on the blog to better illustrate what I’m writing about, or to show certain coins to others. So far, I have restricted it to what I really needed and asked my wife to help me with it. Well, to do it for me. This works, but just like so many things in collecting, I was looking for a way to do it on my own without help. In this post I will document the possibilities and limitations of creating coin photos, and my progress of starting from the idea to taking it to completion.
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Coin dealers and blind collectors – a tribute to Dean

When a blind person walks into your coin shop, you can be sure: it will be a good amount of time spent, and little money made. But keep reading, there is more you get out of it. You get a loyal client, and you can be the one who makes a difference. In this post I will talk about what it means for the coin dealer to work with a blind person, and also show you an example through a great coin shop owner, Dean, who just passed away this year.

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Coin Descriptions for Blind People

When you look at a coin, you can exactly see what’s on it. If you can see, of course. If you can’t, you can feel certain details. Maybe a head, a number, an animal. For those who can’t see, much of this information is unavailable.

But even if you see what’s on a coin, there maybe things which you cannot identify if you do not have the understanding of a given country’s culture.
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Update on Collecting for Kids

I’m not going to turn this into a coin collecting for kids blog, but after my original article, I wanted to give a little update, it relates to this blog to some extent.
The big news is, we got started and Emily is filling her state quarter album. Today I offered her a quarter for something and asked her if she wants it for her piggy bank or quarter album, and she picked the second. So far, so good…
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Currency Recognition for the Visually Impaired

Ever since there is paper currency in the US, visually impaired people have come up with solutions to recognize their money, I recently wrote about how Blind people recognize currency when I discussed collecting paper currency. There is also a more thorough description on how blind people identify paper money. This week there was some development on this issue which I would like to shed light on. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is starting a pilot program to distribute currency readers to blind and visually impaired people, and the distribution to all people will start next year.
Is this good or bad? Does this mean that we won’t have accessible currency?
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Kids and Coin Collecting

Recently I have been exploring a new aspect of coin collecting. So far, it has been a selfish hobby, even some bragging rights. Isn’t it what a hobby should be anyway? But there is something else to it: I would like to share it with my kids. When they were very little, cons have been a no no, and later it has been a treat when they were allowed to look at some of the coins, and on occasion get something from my pocket change. Ok, I have to admit, I even went to the bank to pick up some half Dollars just to have them in the “pocket change”.

As my older daughter Emily is learning to read, the other day I asked her to “help” me with my state quarters. She was reading the states, I put it away, and showed her the individual states on the map. But now I’m hoping to take it one step further.
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Let the blind see: What’s on a coin, anyway?

Post update: I will keep this post for archival purposes, but for the most updated information about this project, please read this newer post.

Though there is some information out there about what’s on a coin, it is rarely enough for me to really understand what a coin really looks like, I can only get a sense of what’s on it in some detail. But that’s changing today. I started a new project to have my coins described.

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