Minute differences, drastic change

I took pictures of this coin, doing everything the same as I would when taking pictures of copper. I tried diffusing the light and tried with direct light, but did not notice a difference in the pictures. I also tried the light coming from different directions, with no noticeable results. I was not happy with the results once I loaded the pics to the computer.

[IMG]http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd202/DJP7x0s/Picture070.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd202/DJP7x0s/Picture071.jpg[/IMG]

Since I was not happy with the results from the first set of pictures, I tried again. Believe it or not, this is the same coin.
The only difference between this set of pictures and the first set, is the white background, and I hit the coin with as much light as possible. I still did not capture the true appearance of the coin in hand. The coin in hand is not nearly as dark, and ugly. The coin is rather attractive and shows alot more color. The colors are irredescent and look very similar to an oil slick in a puddle of water.

[IMG]http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd202/DJP7x0s/30s.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd202/DJP7x0s/30srev.jpg[/IMG]

This is the same picture that I show above. Ardatirion, a friend of mine, was kind enough to brighten the image for me as I do not have any picture editing programs on my computer. This picture does give a better representation of the coin in hand, but still does not do it justice. I think I will have to playy around with my settings alittle more. It is a whole different game than photographing copper. I have noticed that my camera takes better pictures of coins that are silver in color, on a white background. But my camera likes a darker background for copper coins. My pictures of copper on a white background are terrible, the color is way off and the pictures lack detail.

[IMG]http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd202/DJP7x0s/30s2.jpg[/IMG]