I must admit that I really dislike the concept of tooling coins. A
tooled coin is a coin where details on a coin have been "
enhanced" by an engraver in modern times. The
act of tooling is not related to the preservation of the coin but is a simple attempt to increase the appeal of a coin by engraving details on the coin to apparently increase the grade by "enhancing" these details.
I would never knowingly buy a
tooled coin.
I spotted this
Sestertius of
Trajan recently whilst browsing an
auction and thought that the
style was "off".
Looking at the
auction description they declare the tooling. "Details on this
type were
tooled with meticulous care." but then go on to grade the coin as "Exremely
Fine" (
sic).
Coin 1 attached below:-
The question that always crosses my mind in these cases is "How much if that detail is real?"
I am not very familiar with the
type and thought it a worthwhile exercise to look at untooled examples to get an idea of what it should look like as a
bit of self education. As
part of this exercise I stumbled across the following, which I believe to be the "host" or "before tooling" example of the coin. I come to this conclusion by the congruence of much of the underlying die and
flan shape.
Coin 2 attached below:-
This makes it much easier to determine what detail is "
enhanced".
I must admit that I prefer the "before" coin but then that's me....
Martin