Characteristics To Understand When Selecting A Stereo Microscope For Use In Coin Collecting
One of the most useful tools for an advanced coin collector is a stereo microscope. This device can provide highly-detailed views of your coins and expose a variety of desirable and undesirable traits. However, before you purchase a stereo microscope, it will benefit you to understand how a stereo microscope works. In addition, you should know a few characteristics to look for when searching for a stereo microscope. Below is more information that can help:
How does a stereo microscope work?
You may have used a compound microscope at some point in the past, perhaps in a high school biology class or other educational setting. However, stereo microscopes are quite a bit different than their more well-known cousins, and they excel at coin analysis.
Stereo microscopes are able to visualize an object's surface in three-dimensional perspective; they use dual eyepieces to accomplish this optical "magic". A source of exterior illumination reflects light off the object's surface and permits you to see in detail due to lens magnification of the image.
For coins, this three-dimensional perspective is immensely helpful in discerning depth, such as viewing raised lines and markings, as well as examining other features that result from the minting process. Compound microscopes have higher magnification, but they are incapable of analyzing opaque objects, since compound microscopes rely on light passing through the object being viewed.
Characteristics to consider
There are several variables that you should consider when purchasing a stereo microscope for use in coin collecting. Below are a few of the most important:
Magnification power
It can be easy to be wowed by the high magnification power offered by some microscopes, but it is important to keep in mind that the viewing of coins is not going to typically require extreme magnification. Instead, a stereo microscope with a high-end magnification of 50x is more than sufficient to see the details needed by hobby-level coin collectors.
When shopping for stereo microscopes, you will notice that magnification options are available in two categories:
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Dual power - These stereo microscopes are able to be switched between two levels of power, including a low-end setting and a high-end setting. For example, a dual power scope might be designated as 5x-30x, with five times and thirty times the actual size being the only available options.
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Zoom - As with a zoom camera lens, a zoom feature on a stereo microscope enables users to adjust magnification on an infinite scale between a low and high setting. As an example, a zoom magnification of 10x-45x allows the user to adjust the microscope to any power within this range.
For most coin collectors, a dual power option will provide adequate magnification options for their coins. The added cost to purchase a zoom magnification stereo microscope may not be recouped by the collector, since it offers little advantage over dual power options.
Trinocular port option
If you are interested in coin photography, a stereo microscope containing a trinocular port is a valuable feature. The trinocular port is expressly-designed for attaching cameras and will make taking highly-detailed photographs possible.
Lens construction
Stereo microscopes feature a variety of lens construction options, but coin collectors will find achromatic lenses to be an ideal choice. Achromatic lenses are corrected for color, and they provide a real view of the coin's color. Knowing the true color of your coins can help greatly when evaluating them for a variety of criteria, including metal composition and other factors.
Lighting type
Stereo microscopes typically include some type of built-in lighting; these options are incandescent, LED and fluorescent, with incandescent being split into two subtypes: halogen and tungsten. Halogen bulbs provide a high-quality light spectrum as opposed to tungsten bulbs, but newer LED technology is enabling users to adjust the color cast of the light for their specific needs. This technology comes at an added cost for buyers, and it usually makes the most sense for coin collectors to stick with halogen lighting. However, avoiding tungsten and fluorescent lighting is a good idea; they cast a colored light that can be deceiving when looking at coins.
For more information on appraising the value of your coins, check out a company like American Precious Metals Inc.