Hello! Could anyone list some of the best coin magnifying glasses they use to check for DDD, DDD obverse, and to also find any new errors? Thanks again for the help.
What Kentucky said, plus start small. You don't need to spend a lot of money to get started. For the time being, stay away from USB scopes. Most do not learn how to use them correctly, it takes skill and time. Plus they have more power than you will normally need. If you have good lighting you may get by with a standard magnifying glass. But there are lighted magnifiers if you don't and they are cheap on ebay.
You want a 8x or 10x Hasting's Triplet Loupe if you are serious about it. These are the best, but they aren't cheap.
1. Make sure the lens are glass. Some very inexpensive magnifiers are plastic for children use and suffer from aberration. Glass Achromatic lens have 2 lens next to each other to form the image , but still suffer from color aberration so the edges of an image appear fuzzy. Apochromatic lens have 3 or more lens each designed to correct the colors to focus at a point, so the edges are crisp and do not always appear as doubled or odd if not. But these cost more so fewer use them, but they should last a life time. Stay away from usb magnifiers/microscope because they use software that manipulates the image any you see things that aren't there. Hasting, B & L , Nikon, Unitron, are excellent glasses if not dropped and separate the elements. For the price I recommend this one. Nice with the lanyard at shows and it is military grade hastings design as is B& L and others ( 10X). Importantly it has a wide aperture of 21mm and at focus , image is 17 mm. https://www.amazon.com/BelOMO-Triplet-Magnifier-Attached-Anti-Reflection/dp/B000EHLU8U/
Kentucky, where do you see its a hastings triplet? Amazon: is this a triplet magnifier? Answer: Don't know what that means. Single lens 10 power with LED illumination. By fun5er on December 3, 2016 No. This is a singlet. The single glass lens is 0.652" thick and 0.706" diameter. It works as well as other doublets I have owned but is s bit bulkier (closed: 0.97" x 1.75" x 0.96"). The light is very bright and very useful. A sufficient loop for all but the professional or advanced amateur. Best use: pocket lens… see more By Commodore Keith on December 3, 2016
I need something stronger to look at die cracks/breaks and other minute imperfections on coins. Not so much to decide to buy or not, but for those I own to study things like different die varieties. I have Roger Burdette's Saint-Gaudens book and I just can't see the Capitol, stars, mintmarks, and other small devices up close enough. I have this 8x: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PQQPBMB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 So figure I need something closer to 30-40x. If it has a base like the item above so I don't have to hold it that would be better.
I really think you should consider a "dissecting scope" type of magnifier because most people with a 30X or 40X magnifier will have a lot of spherical distortion even in a triplet lens due to the limit in most lens aperture at that magnification, If you are looking for certain markers or even doubling, this could cause problems in IDing them. I go through a new magnifier every couple of years, but one of my scopes is over 30 years as I can't loose it, no one wants to borrow it and walks away, or a lens shifts because I dropped it! And it is almost impossible to take a *sharp* photo through a magnifier, which we usually see several times a day. Think about it. IMO, Jim
