This Will be my First one, is there something wrong like tooling or If they patina was taken off, is It ok?
It looks good. I've noticed a lot more auction houses are labeling coins that have been cleaned and had debris removed as being "tooled" but I only consider it to be "tooling" if they engrave the coin with the purpose of sharpening the portrait and / or inscription.
At the very least, it has some pretty extreme smoothing in the fields. But that only matters if you care about that kind of thing (I personally prefer the increased eye appeal from smoothed fields on some coins). As for tooling, patina, etc.... I have no idea. My inability to make those kinds of determinations is evidenced by the collection of NGC body bags that I accidentally accumulated in my early collecting years. I've solved the problem by simply not purchasing raw bronzes (I prefer my coins in slabs). Some people are definitely better than others at identifying those types of problems, but the analyses that can be done by photo are pretty limited. I think that well done modifications probably require looking at the surfaces under magnification.
Thanks for the answers! They are really helpful. I have started a collection of only sestertius Coins and i figured this one would be a great Coin to start It.
My plan was also to only buy sestertii when I began collecting Roman coins (who doesn't like bigger coins!?) But, I pretty quickly realized that the number of emperors and related people that had sestertii issues was pretty small (40-50?), and that the percentage of those with decent coins that could be obtained in my price range was even smaller (20-25?). I still prefer sestertii over other denominations when they are available, but I was more interested in getting busts of all the people in the story. So, I pretty quickly dropped my "sestertius only" rule. But each to their own, good luck!
Looks nice to me. You've gotta love that prominent chin on ol' Max Thrax! It might have had some smoothing. Many- maybe most- sestertii have. If done properly, that's considered by many collectors to be a neutral rather than negative factor. It depends, of course, on how skillfully the smoothing was done. Here's a sestertius I own that NGC noted "lt smoothing" on. But that did not hold it back from them also giving it the ★ star symbol, which they award to coins with superior eye appeal.
I Will keep the coin. Also, i think that cleaning or taking off the rough patina that starts above the coin Surface is Fine, which is Full of encrustrations, copper oxide, and dirt mixed and then the patina starts to go deep into the Coin, aslong It goes not beyond the Surface and metal and It didnt stripped the patina off the coin, than in my opinion its ok. If that sestertius of your (which is really pretty) If It haven't had that done, It would not be a pretty Coin and a Lot of details would not be found. That "Smoothing" in your Coin revealed a Nice patina down that Gross dark one above which is still in It and gives an unique look. Thats why NGC dont reject Coins like these, because most think its part of the cleaning and restoration, but some personally don't like It.
