Lighting is always a difficult subject when it comes to macro photography and especially towards the budget minded photographer at home.  I have seen plenty of ring lights and other do it yourself contraptions but I noticed something the other day in a forum post on dcresource that caught my eye as I have never thought of doing it before.

Basically if you are shooting top down it is a fairly easy thing to get a Fluorescent Ring Bulb on the very cheap ($10ish at Walmart) and just place it around your object giving you extremely even lighting.  I agree it isn’t a color corrected bulb but the results are not to shabby for a reversed lens on a Panasonic as judging by this penny shot: