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Message:: [QUOTE="TIF, post: 2779961, member: 56859"]Ancient coin catalog description translations: "wholesome example" = very worn, but generally in a uniform and attractive manner; a decent coin for someone who can't or won't spend what it takes for a higher grade "light smoothing" = overt smoothing, possibly some tooling "very nice for the type" = virtually all known examples are very ugly/off-center/unevenly struck/low relief/die rust; this one is less so "a little porous" = surfaces look like 120 grit sandpaper "porous" = surfaces look like 80 grit sandpaper "not in literature consulted" = "It might be unpublished.  I don't have many reference books but it isn't in any of them and I didn't see it on Wildwinds.  I'm hoping the verbiage will lead to a higher price, but hedged on the wording in case I missed something."  (To be fair, this is a perfectly reasonable thing to say... if the cataloger has knowledge of and access to the appropriate catalogs.  The value of the statement depends on who is saying it.) "some roughness" = looks like the surface of the moon "spots of corrosion" = huge defects in the surface from prior bronze disease "MS" = "We're trying to entice slab-trained collectors of modern coins to buy ancient coins and so will employ terms not traditionally used in the world of ancient numismatics."  Also in most instances (particularly when on a label inside a flat plastic rectangle) it equals EF rather than FDC (fleur de coin).[/QUOTE]