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Author Topic: Pretty badly tooled denarius  (Read 810 times)

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Offline Ron C2

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Pretty badly tooled denarius
« on: June 24, 2021, 06:22:04 pm »
This one for sale by a well known seller.  Such a shame, very obviously tooled - and poorly done at that.  It's too bad, because even in fair condition this is a really rare issue - now it's just another tooled coin.  Pretty obvious around the obverse legend, but I suspect both legends are touched up.

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Offline antesignanvm

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Re: Pretty badly tooled denarius
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2021, 04:10:43 am »
I don't think it is tooled, there are many scratches on it but I doubt they are due a bad cleaning because are on all the surface.
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Offline SC

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Re: Pretty badly tooled denarius
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2021, 07:47:24 am »
Bad cleaning that just happens to make the letters way more visible than they were.  Hmmm.

I suspect that the actual surface was removed/lowered to make the letters look like that.

It may be technicality, but to me that it the distinction.  Removal of stuff above the original surface is cleaning - alteration of the original surface/metal is tooling.  And I think this one crosses the line, or at minimum is sitting on the fence having a laugh at us all.

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Offline djmacdo

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Re: Pretty badly tooled denarius
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2021, 12:02:06 pm »
To me it appears as if the fields have been clumsily scraped.  I doubt there there is any original surface left on this coin.

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Pretty badly tooled denarius
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2021, 01:15:22 pm »
There is likely some original surface in the low points of the portraits, but I generally agree with your diagnosis.
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Offline paps

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Re: Pretty badly tooled denarius
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2021, 08:31:58 am »
Quote
...have been clumsily scraped.
I agree. Cleaning can be a long and tedious process. Looks like this one was done by a real amateur. This is a Caracalla that took weeks to clean.

 

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