Magnification Recommendations?

[drcy]

For serious authentication purposes, especially if you collect oddball items and ephemera (posters, booklets, signs, trade cards, prints etc), a microscope is important. I think I wrote 100X, but 60X likely is good too. You can buy inexpensive handheld ones with light one eBay and amazon for cheap. I'm not endorsing the seller, but the below link is to an example one. It's lightweight and portable, you can carry it with you wherever you go.

https://www.amazon.com/Carson-60X-10...ble+microscope

The below link is to a digital one that plugs into your laptop. It isn't portable (unless you count taking your laptop with you as portable), but you can see the microscopic images on your computer screen and take microscopic photos. I've had collectors take microscopic photos and send them to me via email which makes it easy on my for giving authenticity opinions. Plus it's pretty cool and fun to take microscopic images. If you have kids, it's great for them too.

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Micr...ble+microscope

But for normal collecting purposes that cheapo in the first link is fine and dandy.

If you get into old photography, such microscopes are great for authenticating 1800s photos.

[steve B]

You can't go wrong with a few different ones especially if they're inexpensive. I have a fairly nice 10X but it's small, so it doesn't always work well with my old eyes. I also have a cheap 40X that was $7 at an antique store. Larger optics, so I use it more. It has a light which failed after about a month, and the kids have been rather unkind to it.
I also have one of the USB microscopes, which can get to pretty decent magnification I think 450 or so, maybe more.
I also sometimes use the scanner and scan at 1200DPI, not a portable solution, but the best viewing of the entire card.

I also have access to an electron microscope. Unfortunately, it only accepts stuff up to about 3/8 inch diameter. But it will go to around 27000X

Oddly, I don't usually take a magnifier or anything to shows when I go. Years of looking at real stuff makes the stuff that looks "wrong" really stand out.

Steve B