"Image needed"

Images are crucial to the identification of certificates. Images are displayed on this website whenever correspondents contribute them or whenever I locate adequately-sized images among dealer listings.

Over 20,000 certificates images appear on this website, equal to approximately 78% of all cataloged varieties. I maintain images for an additional 14% of certificates, but do not use them on the site because they are too small, blurry, distorted, or poor for online display.  About 1,500 varieties were cataloged images available in auction catalogs and old price lists. Finally, the appearances of 1,400 varieties and sub-varieties are entirely unconfirmed and were cataloged solely from minimal verbal descriptions  or mentions in unillustrated sources of all kinds.

When I started this website, storage costs were much higher than today and download speeds needed to view them were horribly slow. At that time, I decided to display all certificates at 640 pixels wide. That works out to about 6.5 to 7 inches wide on most modern desktop monitors. Unfortunately, even after 25 years, only three-quarters of my illustrations are that large. I would REALLY like to improve the remainder.

Thankfully, collectors and dealers have supplied about 15,000 images at resolutions of 250 dpi to 600 dpi. About a third contributed were duplicates, which serves to improve image and information quality even further. 

You can help this project greatly by sending scans or photographs of certificates you have.

Photographs of any and all certificates will help add to the knowledge base by contributing serial numbers, dates and share values. However, I ALMOST NEVER use photographs on the site because most are distorted and unevenly lit. That is just the nature of photographing certificates.

Many collectors own scanners and scans are the most valuable for illustrating certificates by far. In general, I ask images to be scanned at resolutions of least 300 dpi (dots per inch = 118 dots per cm). That is roughly the lowest resolution needed to read printers' names. If contributors cannot read printer names in their scans, I suggest they increase resolution to 400 dpi.

Lower resolution scans can be used for display on the website, but 200 dpi is probably the lowest resolution acceptable.

Scanning suggestions. Want to learn more? I have a whole section of this website dedicated to scanning certificates. In short:

• Scan in full color.
• 300 dpi resolutions are desired, but the minimum resolution for display is 200 dots per inch.
• No reduction.
• Scan full borders.
• Turn off auto-exposure.
• Turn off automatic sharpening.
• Turn off automatic color adjustments.

I NOT need

• stubs
• coupons
• backs (unless celebrity signatures are present)

Significant signatures

• Scan at 600 dpi with extra space around the writing.

Hints for scanning certificates too large for your scanner

• Scan in two or more pieces.
• Always keep the same orientation for all the pieces.
• Scan pieces with at least 1.5" of overlap.
• Remove the cover of your scanner for delicate certificates.
• Although it seldom works, try scanning EXTREMELY delicate certificates in holders.
• Send the pieces to me and I will patch together. (Tell me if you want me to send you back the "stitched" image.)

Save format

• JPG or JPEG. Save at medium-high level quality. I do not need the highest level quality.
• TIFs and PNGs are okay, but are 8 to 10 times larger than necessary for display and storage. (I always convert to JPG.)

How to send

• If sending a few JPGs, send as e-mail attachments.  (Zipping does NOT compress JPGs.)
• If sending several JPGs, TIFs or PNGs, send via WeTransfer.com or  Dropbox Transfer. Both are free. (I do NOT use Dropbox.)