Bring your coin to life: introducing Motion - Some coins can now be seen with full movement

A photograph shows a coin from one angle, under one light. The real thing is different. Tilt a proof and its fields flash like a mirror, the frosted portrait glows, and the light runs around the rim. Until now there was no way to share that.

Motion changes this. For coins in your Numistacker collection, we can now make a short video of your coin turning under a studio light, front and back. You can save it to your phone, share it straight to social media, or send a link to its own page.

How it works

1. Open a coin in My Collection and press Share your result.
2. Choose Motion. Where a coin's pictures are good enough, you'll see Picture or motion above the preview. Choose Motion to watch your coin turn.
3. Make it yours. Pick a background, add your own line (for example "For Sale" or "New arrival"), and choose square or portrait.
4. Save or share. Save video keeps a 6-second MP4 on your device. Share video opens your phone's share sheet. Copy link gives the video a page of its own that you can send to anyone.

The video is made on your own device. Nothing leaves it until you press Share video or Copy link, and you can stop sharing a link at any time.

What to expect: why Motion isn't instant

Before a coin can have Motion, our system studies its photographs. It finds the coin and its rim, works out which parts are frosted design and which are mirror field, and checks the result is good enough to show. This takes some computing, so it happens in the background, a coin at a time. That means a short wait.

• A coin you've just added, or new photos you've just added: these go to the front of the queue. Expect Motion to appear within a few minutes, sometimes up to half an hour when it's busy.
• Coins already in your collection when Motion launched: we're working through every collection in the background. Your existing coins will get Motion gradually over the coming days. You don't need to do anything.
• When we improve the lighting: we check coins again, in the background, after each improvement. While that happens your coin keeps the Motion it already has. Very occasionally a coin gains Motion, or loses it, after an improvement.
• Making the video: this happens on your device when you press Save video, Share video or Copy link. It takes a few seconds on a computer or recent phone, and a little longer on an older phone. A progress bar shows how far it has got, and you can cancel at any time.
• Opening the preview: the first time you choose Motion on a coin, the preview takes a moment to load.

If Motion hasn't appeared after a day, the photographs probably weren't clear enough for us to be confident of a good result. Try adding better pictures (see below). The coin is checked again as soon as you do.

Getting the best out of it

• Your line sits across the top of the picture. Keep it short (up to 40 characters); "For Sale", "New arrival" or "PR70 at last!" work well.
• Backgrounds: choose one of ours, or press + Your own background to use your own picture. You can rename your backgrounds so they're easy to find.
• Square suits Instagram and Facebook posts. Portrait suits Stories, Reels and WhatsApp Status.
• Share video opens your phone's share sheet, so you can send it straight to WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Messages or email. On a computer, Save video, then upload the file wherever you like.
• Copy link gives you a page for the video. Paste it into a forum post, an email or a listing. Discord, Telegram and Slack play the video right in the chat. Facebook and Messenger show a still picture that opens the video.
• One live link per coin. Sharing a new video (or a new picture) of the same coin replaces the old one, and the link stays the same.

Why some coins have Motion and others don't

Motion is only as good as the photographs it starts from. Every coin's pictures are checked automatically. Motion is offered only where we're confident the result will do the coin justice. Some coins get our full lighting; others get a simpler, softer version. Where the pictures aren't up to it, we'd rather not offer Motion at all than show your coin badly.

The biggest difference is whether the coin was photographed inside its holder or out of it.

PCGS coins: TrueView

PCGS photographs many coins out of the holder with its TrueView imaging, at very high resolution. For a PCGS coin in your collection, we fetch its pictures from PCGS automatically using the certificate number. There's nothing for you to do. If PCGS has high-resolution images of your coin, Motion will usually be offered.

See a coin in Motion: a 1937 proof sovereign from PCGS TrueView images

NGC coins: which images work

NGC offers three kinds of picture. Only one of them photographs the coin out of its holder, and that's the one that makes Motion shine.

Photo options are chosen on our submission form and apply to every coin on the same service tier, because NGC photographs a whole submission form together. They need NGC's XTRA service level; the form tells you if your choice needs changing. Prices are from our current price list and may change when NGC changes its fees.

PhotoVision photographs the raw coin before encapsulation, so there is no plastic, no glare and no holder edge. You see the coin's true surfaces, lustre and toning.

If you're sending coins to NGC through us and want Motion for them, add PhotoVision Plus when you submit. When your coins come back, the pictures go straight onto them in My Collection.

Already have PhotoVision images? Add them to your coin yourself:

1. Open the coin in My Collection and go to the Mine tab.
2. Under Your photos, press Add photos.
3. Add the front first, then the back. Use the separate front and back files if you have them. The side-by-side picture also works, but the separate files give the best result.

Your coin goes to the front of the queue as soon as you add photos. Look again in a few minutes.

Using your own photographs

You can also add your own pictures of a coin. For the best chance of Motion:

• Photograph the coin out of its holder, if you can. Through plastic, glare and the holder's edge nearly always spoil the result.
• One face per picture: front first, then back.
• Straight on, with the camera square to the coin, not at an angle.
• The whole coin in shot, edge included. Don't crop into the rim.
• Sharp focus and even, soft light, with no bright hotspots or reflections of the camera.
• A plain background, dark or neutral.
• Plenty of detail: the coin should be at least 1,500 pixels across. Most modern phones manage this easily if you fill the frame.
• JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 10 MB each. On an iPhone, set the camera to Most Compatible, or share the photo as JPEG.

The edge

Motion draws your coin's rim as it turns, so it needs to know whether the edge is plain or grained (milled). We suggest one from the coin's details. You can change it under Correct the record if it's wrong.

Which coins look best

Proofs are spectacular: their frosted designs and mirror fields are exactly what studio lighting brings out. Prooflike and brilliant uncirculated coins come out well too. Heavily toned coins usually get the simpler lighting, so the colours stay true.

Motion is for single coins. To show several coins together, put them in a set in My Collection and use Show picture.

Try it now: open My Collection, choose a coin and press Share your result. We'd love to see what you make.