(Yes, that's the correct plural of "Tiberius" for those of you wondering.) At the recent NAC auction, I had been hoping to get a needed small bronze of Tiberius for my 12 Caesars collection: My dealer had previously examined this coin (an as) in London, but only briefly and in somewhat less-than-perfect lighting conditions. His initial evaluation seemed to support it as a candidate, so we agreed on a maximum bid price for the NAC auction. When he re-examined it in better light in Zurich prior to the auction, though, he came to the conclusion that the obverse had been "worked" -- meaning that there was evidence of re-engraving that was more than just normal smoothing of the flat areas. So somewhat reluctantly, I decided not to bid on this coin. Too bad -- it's a good-looking coin. However, my dealer had also been in contact with another dealer who had a Tiberius dupondius (which qualifies as a small bronze for the purpose of my collection) that this second dealer had obtained for his inventory. My dealer thought it was one of the best quality dupondii of Tiberius he had seen, although somehow both of us had missed it at a different auction in early 2012. I've had the coin for a few days now and have to say that the picture doesn't do it justice: TIBERIUS AE Dupondius (16.87 g.) Rome 16 - 22 A.D. TI CAESAR DIVI AVG F AVGVST IMP VIII Laureate head left. Rev. CLEMENTIAE S C Small facing bust, laureate, draped (Tiberius?) within laurel wreath on round shield w/circle of petals, outer circle of palmettos RIC 38 My initial reaction to seeing this coin was that the legends appeared too sharp not to have been tooled, but both dealers confirm that the coin has not been tooled or re-engraved at all -- and there is minimal smoothing (as can be seen in the fields) which supports the conclusion that this coin has had only minor cleaning. The color is as shown -- it appears to have a "Tiber patina" rather than the more typical green patina of most bronzes. An excellent obverse portrait with decent relief, which is difficult to find on Tiberius' bronzes since most of them seem to be weakly struck. All in all, it's likely a keeper.
I like the Dupondius a lot. It has most of what I look for in a coin, especially the unique reverse. Are fields rough as it appears in the image? I have to say, however, tooled or no, I love the As as well. Both are beautiful coins.
The surface of the dupondius isn't nearly as rough as the photo would make it appear. I might take my own photo to see if I can get a better representation of it.
Based on the patina and the person posting, I would say probably not. The reverse on this one is also not very rough, but the patina photographs like it is.
