Casting bubbles or pitting?

Hi all!

I was browsing eBay, and came across this seller. They are pretty new to selling ancient coins, so I haven't seen them before (although they have sold a decent amount of modern coins in the past). Most of their coins look genuine - at least the one's I'm interested in - but some of them look a bit strange.

For example, this rather rare dupondius of Livia has some weird dips in the surface, and I'm wondering if they're casting bubbles



Also, does this Faustina looks tooled?


They are selling lots of high value coins, as well as low value ones. Such as this Caesar denarius


...and this Gallienus antoninianus



I'm not interested in buying any of the coins above, but they do also have a couple of scarcer antoniniani that I might be interested in (such as a Macrianus antoninianus)

Any thoughts? All coins are auctions starting at £0.99

 

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1. That looks like bubbles, to me.

Here's an example of pitting:

Pitting seems to be less regularly round, and more irregular.

2. I'd be very surprised if the hair/bun of Faustina is NOT tooled. The lines in the hair appear to be artificially deepened, compared to the wear on the higher points. Here's an example of a very high grade Faustina

 

Looks like a fake to me. Maybe it's best to steer clear of this dealer.

 

Also, just noticed but the relief on Livia is SUPER HIGH. Would be unusual for such an extreme high relief on that coin.

 

casting bubbles without a doubt on that 1st coin

 

Generally, I avoid dealers who sell mostly modern coins but who occasionally sell an ancient or two. There may be exceptions, but as a rule these dealers are not very knowledgeable about ancients, and they are much more likely to let fakes slip through than a dealer who specializes in them.