Hi Mark,
Very cool piece you have there and you have done a nice job with it. Looks like some “old money” there!
Just a couple of thoughts that probably make no difference one way or another?
I noticed those specks too! Unless it’s my screen! This kind of photography really requires getting down and dirty with the detail work. Things are easily missed! You have a bit of an anomaly going on in the lower left corner of the frame. Easy fix though.
When one shoots on a nice black surface, as you have here, and depending on the subject matter, one can drop the black point and in a lot of cases bring the surface all the way to black without affecting the subject. The lower half of your surface has not gone to black all the way.
The shot looks about a stop and two thirds, maybe a little more, under exposed to me Mark. If you bumped up the exposure those coins will lose a bit of the muddy look and start to bounce more.
Coins, when used in jewelry pieces, or for that matter everyday handling, will naturally wear and the features will start to flatten. I’ve seen coins so worn that you could hardly make out anything that was stamped into them. A bit of clarity adjustment would probably help bring that back out and give it a bit of a sharpening effect. Also a bit of local contrast enhancement might also help bring out more detail in the coins.
Anyway, I’m sorry about your Dear Sainted Mother Mark. Its cool that you posted something of her’s.