Sorry, another newbie question... Everything I am reading says "tool marks" and "depressions" are signs of fake coins. But how do you tell them apart? There are real marks that seem to look like what Google tells me are tool marks? Here is a picture from a reputable site of a genuine (PGCS) graded coin. These look just like (at least to my untrained eye) the same as the tool marks Google keeps talking about. ---- Please educate me! (Maybe it's time to break up with Google LOL)
The confusion is understandable and the difference can be subtle. It may help to post pictures of the fake diagnostics as well to compare. Generally speak, the tool marks will be on the raised portion of the die and will leave a scratch on the die. The raised part of the die corresponds to the fields of the coin, and a scratch on the die will leave raised lines on the coin, make sense? The mark in the field is a depression, so likely just a scratch from circulation, and the other marks are on raised portions of the coin, which are easier to nick in circulation and less likely to be the location of tooling marks (they are recessed on the die and harder/less likely to have a tool applied to them).
Incuse marks like these are not really worrisome unless you find other examples that have the same exact marks.
