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Message:: [QUOTE="IdesOfMarch01, post: 2305958, member: 39084"]I would point out that the term "smoothing" is still widely used to describe the "cleaning" of bronzes described by the above paragraph. [ATTACH=full]463999[/ATTACH] To my eye, Doug's coin (above) crosses the line from cleaning (smoothing) to smoothing (tooling) (1) on the obverse under the legend between 11 and 1, where the smoothing of the field has created a rut between the top of the head and the legend; (2) on the forehead of the portrait where the hairline appears to be more defined than it would have been without smoothing; and (3) on the entire front of the portrait where the nose, mouth, and chin are very well defined due to the overly smoothed field adjacent to these features. The reverse doesn't really appear to be overly smoothed except possibly in the area just to the right of the figure's left leg, where the two devices seem a bit "carved out" but nothing really egregious. Regardless, this is still an appealing coin and exhibits a lot less tooling than most bronzes -- in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if most dealers classified this as "gently smoothed" and not really tooled.[/QUOTE]