James and all,

I have found that, to hold small shells in place, cyphomas and cowries
included, I can get good results by placing two new wooden pencils on
the scanner, ones with nice new erasers. The erasers should touch each
other, pencils lying at about a right angle to each other. Then place
the shell you want to scan against the corner produced by the two
pencils. The rubber of the eraser will help to hold the shell in place.
This method will also prop shells in the position you desire. And the
erasers aren't any harder than anything else to paint out of the
background in a photo processing program like Photo Shop or Photo House.

Lynn Scheu
Louisville KY
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Give a COA membership as a Christmas gift to that new shelling friend
you've met.