How Much Tooling Can You Tolerate?

The hair and clothing on coins of the Bosporus is typically crudely rendered. While the fields have obviously been smoothed, the devices may not have been extensively altered. Compare:


Tiberius Julius Mithradates, King of the Bosporus AD 41-45, and his mother, Gepaepyris, Wife of Aspurgus.
Bosporus Kingdom, probably prior to AD 41
AE 12 nummia, 7.92 gm; 23.5 mm
Obv: ΒΑCΙΛΕΩC ΜΙΘΡΑΔΑΤΟΥ, laureate head of Mithradates, right
Rev: ΒΑCΙΛΛΙCCΗC ΓΗΠΑΠΥΡΕΩC, laureate, draped bust of Queen Gepaepyris, right.
Refs: Anokhin Bosphorus 331; SGI 5433; BMC 13.51,5.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

There is a subtle difference between restoring a damaged coin, and tooling a worn but otherwise undamaged coin. I think its the latter situation that most of us are focused on in this conversation. However, "Where do we draw the line?" is always an interesting point in a conversation about gray areas, and Doug's post about the EID MAR aureus is an interesting conundrum. If we can accept filling the hole in the aureus (not saying whether I can), shouldn't we also accept filling corrosion pits on a sestertius?

 

Me too This one was purchased in my first months of collecting
pay to much, iff i did nt know that, i did not pay that much anymore.

heavy tooled portret

trajan sestertius

 

well, it's hard to tell sometimes, and even maybe most of the time. now i'm leary of a lot more now. i wasn't aware of tooling till i got here in CT.

 

I bought this Sauromates I AE 28 thinking it might be rare in a more original sort of way. Opinion?

 

The patina looks convincing. I'd really like to flip through MacDonald's book to see more of these. They all have a very cartoonish feel. That might make them look tooled but it also makes them easier to tool.

 

i'd have ask sombody. i'm not well versed enough to know. looks possibly tooled, but.. i'm wiff TIFF.

 

IMHO, that is the only acceptable kind of tooling - because no harm was done to the original piece. Plus, it's always fun to see folks discuss such things while leaving their critical thinking skills at the door.

 

It has been said before in other discussions that coins from the Bosporus Kings are all tooled, but I do wonder. They ALL look the same. Is it possible that 100% of these coins all come to the market tooled? I suspect not. I assume the art style of the coins lend us to think so, but I feel that while some illustrated here are tooled I really dont think they all are.

 

tooled is tooled/ how rare a coin is
that still makes a coin not bad
/only good for the price to buy it


Sorry

in my eyes then

 

hardian As with a bad barber hehe

 

This is the most extensively tooled coin I own, and if I could do it again I would NOT have purchased it.
It's cool, though.

 

You mean, "If the coin looked similar to this one, but wasn't tooled, then I would have bid $1000".

Who knows what this coin looked like previously, but if someone determined that it was worthwhile to tool, then it probably wasn't a $1000 coin to begin with!

I only purchase NGC slabbed coins, so I guess my answer is "Zero", as tooled coins do not go into slabs. Well, "Tooled" by the standards with which NGC makes their determinations anyway. Sometimes I think that the slab/no slab decisions are heavily based on whether David Vagi is having a good or bad day !

Edit: Just realized that this thread is 4 years old. Hotwheels is bumping some oldies today

 

Not only that, Ken Dorney is no longer a member, so I'm afraid that he won't see your response!

 

Reminds me of that scene with Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park:

"And, uh, here I am now by myself, uh, uh, talkin to myself" haha!