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Message:: [QUOTE="IdesOfMarch01, post: 2657276, member: 39084"]Minor smoothing has never been an issue for me, and most of my AE coins exhibit smoothing to some extent.  The Galba to which you refer doesn't appear to be tooled and the amount of smoothing is (for my personal tastes) eminently acceptable.  So it appears we're pretty much in agreement on this topic.  The analogy of "We restore paintings that have damage and that doesn't make them less valuable.  So why do we look down on coins that are tooled and smoothed?" has always been a VERY interesting potential discussion topic for me.  My thought about this topic is that paintings were not made to be circulated and subject to normal wear and tear, and original oils are unique.  Repairing and restoring them is understandable.  Coins, on the other hand, are made explicitly to be circulated and thus subject to wear and tear, so it's natural that less-circulated, better-condition coins will be more highly prized.  Coins' lack of uniqueness -- thousands of coins are struck from exactly the same die-pair -- makes collecting them very different from acquiring original works of art.  Tooling a coin is thus very different from restoring an original painting. Not sure I articulated my thoughts very well, but this is why I distinguish restoring art from re-engraving coins.[/QUOTE]