Tooled?

[benito]

I admit that the complete remaking of the palm trunk and the slight shift of the position of the C of S C are hard to explain, but these differences cannot convince me that the dies are in fact different, given the identity of virtually all other details.

Curtis,

There are some other differences, which make a tooling job as originator of these differences, not very probable:
- position of last letter 'A' of CAPTA with regards to the arm of Judaea
- spacing between trunk and emperor, quite smaller on the auction coin (e.g. compare helmet, left knee, drapery over left arm and their relative distance to trunk)
- spacing between SC and 'floor' (or exergue) line
- shape of letter 'E' of IVDAEA (especially the center line)

I cannot imagine a tooler reconstructing completely the reverse, to explain all those differences. So I see an identity of style, but not of die. But surely the same hand who designed both dies.

Jérôme

I agree, two different dies. There are some other differences..i.e. the lower part of the emperor's breast plate. As I said I would like to have the coin in hand and under a microscope.
In the meantime it's hard to believe that the seller did not notice the "carnage" ( if any) ,or voluntarily omited it in the description.

[David Atherton]

There is something amiss with the coin in question I can't quite put my finger on. It just doesn't look "correct" to my eyes. Even without a die match to compare it to, I'm very skeptical about this coin not having been reworked. If Curtis is correct (I believe he is) and this has been heavily reworked by modern hands, it could explain why it has this "off" appearance.

The reverse in particular is odd, especially the figure of the emperor.

[Joe Sermarini]

I hate when people say anything about the seller here.  I still don't know who the seller is specifically but from the posts I know this is a high value coin in a reputable auction.  I am reluctant to give my opinion.  If I didn't know anything about the seller, I would assume it is on eBay, and I would greatly suspect it is a complete fabrication from modern dies.   

[Molinari]

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but if the original (auction) coin is tooled, wouldn't that mean metal had to be added?  At least with the trunk that seems to be the case, because it is so much thicker.  Or did they simply scrape down into the field so much that they could add the additional features to the trunk?  And in that case I would think it would be very noticeable in hand and therefore noticed by the auction house, right?

Nick