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Sorry if this question has already been asked but I was wondering if anyone has tried a digital microscope? I have seen a bunch on ebay called Dino-Lite etc.. and they seem pretty nice but I wasn't sure if they would be worth the price. I have a handheld loupe but it takes me a long time to get each coin in focus.

The digital microscopes are nice but, I'm not sure that it's any faster than using a loop. I used mine pretty much only for taking pictures of coins at a high magnification. They are definitely worth the price if you'd like an extreme amount of detail and you'd like a picture. If you dont desire that, you might want to try like a bigger magnifying glass or one of those pocket magnifying glasses with the plastic sleeve.

I have a celestron 44306. It's used to look for RPM's (repunched mintmarks). I also used it for taking pictures for close-ups of my WAM (Wide A M) discoveries. The only drawback is that I can't get the whole coin for a clear picture. As I zoom out the scope gets out of focus. I have also used it for a couple of slick coins that I had. With my loupe, I thought I had a 1914-D penny. But under the scope, the '4' was an '8'. Don't ask me how they could look like each other.

You get what you pay for. Mine was like $70 shipped on Amazon. Found it cheaper than ebay.

I have heard lots of good things about the dino-lite. It's more expensive...but better. It will save your eyes...but on being faster? Just depends what you want to do with it. It great for looking for errors. I did find a cool die break. I'll edit this with a pic or two in a bit....sorry lunch.

Here's a close up of the WAM. BIG gap between the A and the M.




And this was about as far as I could zoom out on this penny and it still be clear and focused.



This one I saw some distortion above the letters and needed a closer look.



And this last one has the die break but I'm having problems getting the whole pic to show. The break goes from the rim into the lower right corner of the memorial building. It may look like a hair. I hear it's fairly common. Sometimes there will be a break from all '4' corners of the building. This is the only one I've found so far.

Thought this might be a RPM...what do ya think?

Thanks for the reply TJCF, that definitely looks like it takes great pictures. Seems like the microscopes have such a wide range in prices,probably will have to do a little more research to figure out what I want, don't want to spend that much. That looks like a RPM to me but that doesn't really mean much since I haven't been doing this very long. Do you search all years for errors? I think I saw a link here that listed popular years so I just search (or have set aside) 1959, 1959-61D, 1963D, 1964, 1966, 1968 & 1969 D, 1971, 1972 & 1980. I did find a pretty cool penny the other night that seems to have the outer layer missing. Not sure if it is an error, will try to post a scan later if it comes out alright.

This scope can't get the entire coin...so do your research. I like mine....but have limitations!

Here is a scan of a coin I found, does anyone know what this is?

adamsp27 wrote:Here is a scan of a coin I found, does anyone know what this is?

Looks like it has been sanded down bad.

adamsp27 wrote:Here is a scan of a coin I found, does anyone know what this is?

PMD. This is just a heavily worn coin. Not worth the Zinc its made of. Looks kind of cool though.

Here's a RPM.