Hadrian Sestertius in Upcoming Auction

Directly from Bertolami Fine Arts:


Tooling and smoothing?
About EF? Why not just tool it until it's FDC?

Maybe they should change their company name to Bertolami Fine Engraving...

What on earth is happening with dealers in the ancient coin world?

 

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It makes for a pretty coin, but not natural.

 

Maybe natural when God was a lad. Looks plastic, artificial.

 

Also, I wonder why they think it will sell for ~$4200 US (opening bid ~$3350)? In 2012 it failed to sell for an estimate of ~$3300 and in 2013 it failed to sell at an opening bid of ~$3250. Both listings mention the work, at least to some extent.

2 May 2012, Hirsch:


25 April 2013, Peus:

 

Since we now grade only from wear, this sounds like a reasonable solution. After all it only takes one bidder with more dollars than sense to get $3k+. We can not grade the coin accurately since we really don't know what it looked like before it was 'deworn' so FDC is but a tiny step. We need a catalog with the coin as it was a century ago. I do think this is a fine example of the engraver's art. The problem is the engraver may still be alive and working on a sequel.

 

Whats funny is everyone is quick to veto ebay for such reasons, yet the bigger auction houses are just as guilty of posting tooled/smoothing & even fakes for high prices.

Hopefully the this continues to not sell and will eventually disappear.

 

Perhaps this Hadrian Sestertius was an earlier job of the same engraver,
clearly over tooled , only needs a plastic tomb with GEM uncirculated grade.
cost me $30

 

That's horrible, and even worse that it's passed through Hirsch and Peus in prior years. Auction houses should just refuse to sell coins this far-gone rather than just offhandedly note the tooling (if "A bit worked" is the correct translation from the Peus sale).

 

Ja, 'etwas bearbeitet' translates to 'a bit or somewhat worked upon'. Why don't these engravers start with flans from the junk pile...

 

I have one similar, but just worn out naturally.

I think I paid about 19.00 for it.

At first I thought I didn't like it, but it's growing on me. I'm happy to have it.

 

Poor Hadrian, all tressed up and nowhere to go.

 

It's a beautiful coin op but I just don't think I could buy one knowing it's tooled. So I agree with your sentiments.

 

It seems to me most of the coins getting called out for tooling are from European companies. Could European collectors be more accepting of tooled coins? Maybe collectors who do not post on CoinTalk are more accepting of tooled coins?

 

To be fair, a search for the keyword "tooled" on CNG calls up over 500 coins with various degrees of tooling noted. Not a great number, relatively speaking, but clearly, they don't have a policy of rejecting outright tooled coins.
https://www.cngcoins.com/Search.asp...R_TYPE_ID_2=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_4=1

 

Fair enough.

 

pass/ tooling is heavy i see it

 

Aegytas

 

Aegytas

 

I bought what i belive is a tooled Hadrian As before I knew better. I still like the coin and am happy to have it considering I only paid $75 for it but I in no way support aggressive reworking of a coin. Especially when it's meant to deceive an unknowing buyer.

 

What are the telltale signs of tooling and smoothing? I'm not good in this area. My strategy has been to buy from people I trust and crappy cheap coins from everyone, lol.