Money. It’s not all that matters, but not much else matters without it. For this week’s Shooting Challenge, we had you photograph money. Specifically, coins. And the results were fantastic.

Winner: Cool Kiwi


I’m based in Australia, but shooting New Zealand coins, due to the Australian requirement to request permission before publishing any photos of coins. I wanted to capture the texture of the coins, so I spent a fair bit of time working on lighting angles to best show it off. In the end I went with a long exposure (1.3sec) with a first curtain fill flash to pull out all the details. This was shot on a Canon 550D (ISO: 400, Shutter: 1.3”, Aperture: f/36)

Dave Cheetham

Tip Jar


I own and manage a local coffee shop. With tax day approaching, It seems like people have been tightening up their barista tip jar budget! Pennies and Nickels oh my! Equipment: Panasonic Lumix GF2 LUMIX G 20mm/ƒ1.7. Settings: ISO 100 0ev ƒ1.7 1/60

Samuel Scalf

LB

Attached is an image of the reverse of a 2015 D Lincoln penny from my pocket. The initials “LB” are of Lyndall Bass, one of the designers. They are visible below the “N” in ONE CENT. The image was taken with a Hirox KH-8700 digital microscope. Serial images are taken at small intervals and then reconstructed into a 3D representation. No special lighting or post processing.

Larry Wayne

Real Gold


These are real GOLD coins! I was in the Louvre Museum yesterday and took this snap. Did not love the museum, to be frank. Maybe because during most of the time my 8yo boy kept bugging us to leave. It is kinda boring for kids anyway. 5D M III, 16-35mm lens.

Marcelo Ribeiro

Piggy Bank Theft


Grabbed a coin from my son’s piggy bank, an idea popped in my head to shoot it underwater, I’m not a photographer so I just sat it on a wood table under the kitchen light and started shooting, and trusted the nexus camera.Equipment: Nexus 6 with standard 3.82mm focal length lens, glass of water, incandescent light. Settings: no flash, 2.0 aperture, 287 ISO, 1/30 shutter. Technique: coin in about 2 inches of water, overhead light with dark wood background, shot straight down with camera right on top of the glass.

Jason Kuznicki

1968


Shot with my Samsung Galaxy S4 using a focusing lens from a flashlight under fluorescent lighting. Freelensing, if you will. :) Other than that, just a little processing in PhotoShop because of some junk in my phone’s camera lens.

Phillip Stewart

The Cash On Hand


Didn’t have any Canadian money or anything else with color, and the whole illegal aspect was a clear roadblock. Remembered playing Monopoly with my kids a few weeks back and boom! Threw in some Tootsie Roll pops just because… Sony DSC-RX. Shot on some white printer paper propped up by a cup and binder clip under some standard T8 office lights.

Morgan Cuz

Road Nickels


These nickels were found in the “dead zone” of a intersection in the North Park neighborhood of San Diego. You can almost see Jefferson’s head in one of them. Taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5. ISO 80 f /4.5 @ 1/10th sec. Natural lighting w/ tripod. Contrast bumped-up to highlight gouges.

Robert Laymon

Lineup


This photo was taken with my Canon 6D equipped with the Canon 100mm f/2.8L lens. For lighting, I used a simple desk lamp which I could easily position around. When I saw this challenge come up on Gizmodo, I already knew what I wanted to capture: a side shot of coins lined up. After finally finding some time, I picked up some loose change, lined up the coins and took the photo. I shot this one at ISO 200 and a shutter of 1/100. The aperture was also set at f/2.8 to maximize the blur effect which helped take out the roughness from the wall behind and create a smooth glow from the light, while giving me enough DOF to capture the sharpness of the coin’s edges.

Ryan Valle


This 1 cent is worth $2.24 x10-4 (based on $1=Php44.6 conversion rate). It’s my first time to try reverse lensing and I was surprised that I still didn’t have enough dof at f11. I read diffraction becomes a problem after f/11 so I didn’t go beyond it. I estimate I had 4mm in focus on this 15mm diameter coin. Olympus E-M10 at 1/160 f/11 ISO 200 with Oly 40-150 f4-5.6 on body and Minolta MD 50mm f2 as reverse lens.

Christopher Scott Pau

The French Drop


This is @thegrandrew performing a coin vanish called The French Drop. The coin he’s using is a 1901 silver dollar. The coin vanishes just like our tax dollars.Picture was taken with a Panasonic GH4 and SLR Magic 10mm at T2.8, 1/2000, 200iso.

Peter Leininger

Centerpiece


This was shot with a Nikon D3300 camera at 35mm, 1/500s, f7.1, iso100 and a circular polarizing filter to cut the glare. The coin in the center is a 1921 Morgan silver dollar, that was given to me a number of years back by my grandfather. I thought this would make a good ‘centerpiece’ among some accumulated spare change.

Paul Churnock

Inverted


I took this photo on Thursday after receiving my new Samsung NX300 from amazon. It was taken at 55mm on a glass table and I cropped it to enlarge the coin then added a negative effect.

Kyle Weideman

Pancake Line


We were standing in line for pancakes at Eastern Market this morning when my husband pointed out this week’s shooting challenge: Money. We found these coins elsewhere in the market from various countries of origin that have been painted, lacquered and mounted on pin-backs to wear as jewelry. I knew this was my subject for the week. Hopefully I haven’t violated 40 international laws with this photograph. Shot with my trusty Nikon D40.

Della Leffler

Lowly Penny


A lowly penny is the subject matter for my submission. It was a little beat up, so I went with it. The base image was captured with my Lumia 635. It was then given a little unsharp mask, and a vintage photo appearance in GIMP. The image was then cropped, and resized in Paint.net 4.0.5.

Jonas Demuro

Presidents


Taken on an iPhone 6.

Jason Simmonds

Inflation


I placed a water drop on a penny to distort the shape and to bring out the bright copper color of a new penny. Image shot with a Nikon D7100, ISO 500, f/ 5.6.

Karen Brooks

Big City Money


I was taking the ferry in Queens, NY. Then I put the coin there and observe how the big city is being run by the economy.

Paul Velastegui



Rusty Peacock


Here is my entry for the money shooting challenge. I decided to use a Euro coin because it is a little different than our coins in the USA. I used my iPhone 4S with a clip on macro lens for this shot.

Bobby Gutierrez

The Collector


My grandfather was the collector in our family. At the end of the day he would look through his pocket, fish out the interesting looking coins and hide them in his garage. We found these pieces of silver shortly after he died. He’d sealed the jar sometime in the 60’s or 70’s and the jar has yet to be opened. I’m sure there’s some real winners in there, but it’s more about my grandfather than the monetary or numismatic value. Taken with my LGG3,

Timothy Erling



Central Park Zoo


Canon 7D with Sigma 24-105, backlight Alienbees B800 45 degree from right and Keylight 45 degree with beauty dish manual mode 1/200 sec at F4 Iso 100.

Jorge Perez

Money Sleeps, But Only In Dollhouses


I respectfully disagree with Mr. Gordon Gekko. A 1964 Kennedy half dollar in my daughter’s dollhouse. Canon 5D; Canon 50 mm f/1.8 lens; Yongnuo 560-II flash bounced off a banker’s box lid for fill; minor edits in Lightroom

Chris Sears

Barbados Moolah


Amateur photographer here, I’m just getting to know my Nikon D3200. Thought I’d get some practice with your contest today. My setup is still with the kit lens and a tripod. I used a key chain flash light to get a bit more light without using flash (since I don’t have an external one yet) Currently living in Barbados so I the pic is of a few Barbados $1 dollar coins. Coins are stacked on a black cloth. May not be much in the sense of composure but critiques and comments welcome.

F. Eronne Evans


I grabbed my bin of loose change and dumped it out, set a slow shutter speed, and fired off a few shots of coins dropping into outstretched hands. This was the very first shot. Cropped and brightened slightly. Canon G7x, f/2.2, 1/40 sec. exposure time, ISO-250.

S Wootten

On Glass


There’s not really a story behind this one, just took a photo of some coins on a glass table with light shining through the bottom, and I liked how this turned out. Taken with the miniscule Industar-69 2.8/28 lens [macro] on Canon 7D. Using that lens is loads of fun, giving a nice macro effect in a compact size.

Dennis Comella

2 Pounds


It’s 28mm diameter and approx 2.8mm thick - 2 Pound British Coin. Text struck into the edge of the coin “milling” “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants” — Nikon D810, Lens: Nikkor 60mm Macro Extension Tube: 12mm. Placed coin on white photographic ink jet paper. Set f stop (aperture - opening) to f. 18. This is a small opening which places approx 3 mm in focus in any one shot.

Peter A. Blacksberg

The cold hard cash of the world really can be beautiful, can’t it? Find the full-sized shots on flickr.