True. I remember his old eBay listings, the ones that were really badly tooled, at first didn’t say anything and then he just began posting “tooled and smoothed” under virtually every listing, whether tooled or not. I hope CNG’s eAuctions don’t become a venue for tooled coins. This one is pretty bad judging by the photo.
Yes, but most often the estimates are intentionally absurdly low. Also, did everyone note all the other Cleo's on offer now? I didnt look really, but none seemed tooled from the thumbnails.
Estimate was low but that coin is worth maybe 1/10 of hammer price.. I agree no obvious tooling in any of the 3 Cleos, and no mention of it in the descriptions.
On some coins the description said "toned" e.g.Lot 355 (https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=384715) I don't understand if that means that some procedure was applied to get the coin "toned" or if the coin has a natural color (tone). Could one of you explain what "toned" means?
Toned will mean natural toning, or oxidation, of the metal. If a dealer or auction firm thinks that is artificial they should state such.
I have no particular expertise in the billon coins of the Coriosolites and I could well be missing important nuances, but I do note that the same general type has brought roughly comparable prices in the recent past: NGSA 7, lot 115, 3400 CHF hammer; Goldberg 72, lot 4275, $2800 hammer; Triton XVIII, lot 821, $2000 hammer. Many other examples have realized over $350, some over $1000. Certainly the $3500 hammer price of the coin in question is still surprisingly strong, but it may not be quite the outlier it seems at first glance. Phil Davis
The Triton coin is the only comparable on that list. These are most common type of Coriosolite staters. They're hard to find well struck but a few decent specimens can be found for sale at any given time.
Thank you so much @medoraman for the clarification. I thought it meant something negative, like tooled, cleaned ...
