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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 7836265, member: 19463&quot;]I do think the word &#039;improved&#039; is poorly selected here.&nbsp; That is a face not even a mother could love.&nbsp; I believe most of us agree that any such work is inappropriate but hack jobs like that nose can not be appreciated even by those who can tolerate such things.&nbsp;&nbsp; We know two things about this coin. 1. Work was done because the coin changed between the two sales.&nbsp; 2. The work was poorly done to the point that we do not need to find a pair of before/after photos to see there is a problem here.&nbsp; The criminal who commissioned this work should have opted for someone capable of the work.&nbsp; That is my point. This is poor work.&nbsp; Is there a higher level &#039;artist&#039; that has done similar repairs to other coins that can only be discovered if we find a matching pair of sale photos.&nbsp; Of the ten thousand perfect coins we see in the market, how many are made &#039;perfect&#039; recently?&nbsp; We know this happened as recently as 2012 so it is not unreasonable to think the same worker may be working on another coin as we are discussing this.&nbsp; Have they improved their skills?&nbsp; I know the graders at NGC and other numismatists have exposed things of this kind but we do not know if there are coins they missed or that were never sent to them because the owner had no clue that the coin was not as made &#039;back then&#039;. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I wish I could agree with this but I have seen coins &#039;improved&#039; from good to fine and see no reason that people of my level of &#039;expertise&#039; might expect to discover any meaningful percentage of these.&nbsp; I have some really nice looking coins &#039;for their grade&#039;.&nbsp; Does anyone have an NGC slab that reads F 5/5 5/5?&nbsp; That would strike me as a nice coin.&nbsp; I hope that it is &#039;nice and original&#039; as opposed to &#039;recently nicened&#039;.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.&quot;&nbsp; Shakespeare</p><p><br /></p><p>Shakespeare did not know he was talking about coins.&nbsp; We all like coins &#039;as struck&#039; and coins that have become even better in time with great, natural patina.&nbsp; We have not warmed up to the coins recipient of &#039;greatness thrust upon them.&#039;&nbsp; Or have we?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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