50mm prime with 4x close-up lens.
f22 for maximum DOF.
Umbrella strobes top and bottom (after rotation) didn't give enough light so extended exposure to use natural light.
Rotate to level text on coins
Selected black background and removed all brightness to eliminate any possible shadows.
Adjust levels
Neat Image
Crop and Smart Sharpen
Cloned out some minor imperfections.
resize and save for web.
This challenge is the first time these coins have seen light in over 20 years. I got some silver polish and cleaned up the gunk on them a bit, though now I can see not enough, stacked them, supported the highest with small coins. I was short on time and roughly did the set-up in about 10 minutes, the shooting 13 shots with different setups and exposures in 5 minutes, editing in 5 minutes, and then had problems uploading. Fortunately the submission window was extended by a day. I went through the 13 shots, doing multiple passes trying to get the best entry to do better than my last two 4.x scoring shots. The last and best the stack tipped over, but the top of the top coin was clipped off, which would generate very bad scores and comments. This is my first Neat Image in a while. Let's see if it helps. I know I could have done much better on the stack if I'd had the time. Now the coins are back in their tomb.
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