Proscope Help
 

Bought a Proscope like the one Steve Grad uses on Pawn Stars. I'll be using it on vintage cards and autographs. Does anyone know where I can find samples of vintage cards under a microscope, or different writing instruments under a microscope? TIA

ask Steve Grad ( I have no idea who he is )

Steve Grad used to authenticate for PSA. He now authenticates for Beckett.

ok, thanks for the info.

hopefully you will some samples.

What would you like to see? And how closely?

I have a USB microscope I can take pics with.

As for other stuff like writing, I have a bunch of cheap ephemera like stamp covers, or old envelopes a collector used to store their stamps in. Most of that stuff I could make a small stack and just send it to you. Some of it is literally destined for recycling, and if it can be used as an example so much the better.

Thank you Steve B. PM sent. Interested in differences between A&G, T206/other tobacco issues. Also differences between ball point pen, fountain pen, felt markers, etc.

Below are 2 snapshots of a PSA graded T201.

I forget if this was the microscope or the scanner at 1200dpi, It's lost a bit in the resizing.

T206 Batch, close up showing the remnants of registration marks being different between two different sheet positions.

https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...pictureid=4528

And the corners, showing that the background blue is dark blue over light blue.
The bits of blue and black that stick out are normal, not registration marks. The masters the plate layout transfers were printed from were hand done and have lots of little things like that. Also interesting is that both light and dark blue appear to have been done from the same master.


https://www.net54baseball.com/pictur...pictureid=5834

There's a whole world of tiny, and it can be fascinating. It can also make you crazy.... Not that I'd know about that :o

My book linked below has many microscopic images.

Authenticating Early Baseball Cards

Also know that many early non-sports cards used the same printing processes, so getting cheap low-grade non-sport Allen and Ginters, trade and strip cards, caramel cards, etc. are great for samples.

I don't know if you have the ability to adjust the depth of focus on the ProScope, but it looks like the depth of the slab plastic is affecting your snapshots. The slab surface is in sharp focus, revealing minor imperfections or dust on the slab surface, with the card inside appearing somewhat blurry and out-of-focus, similar to the issue with many scanners which have a fixed depth of focus which does not account for the thickness of the slab itself.

^^^^^ Yeah, that. Pick up a variety of cards over the years of different types. If they aren't baseball or some other sport, they can be had very cheaply. Most antique shops that aren't higher end specialists will have an assortment of tradecards and other stuff, and if the condition isn't great a common tradecard might be under $1.

The more you see and practice on the more you'll know. And you'll eventually start occasionally seeing stuff that looks "off" although that's actually uncommon with the very cheap stuff. But you will eventually be able to pick a decade somewhat reliably. (There was always that one company that insisted on using the oldest technology possible to produce their catalogs/labels etc)