Drachm of Alexandria, Hadrian. I'm considering pulling the trigger but the smoothness and apparent survival of the legend has me thinking it might have been tooled. What do you think?
Looks okay to me. The highest points are on the portrait and they are worn. The legend is lower and is somewhat protected by the dotted border. On the right side where the dotted border has been worn away (or was weakly struck or was where the convexity begins) the outer part of the legend is worn lower as would be expected. Usual disclaimer: I am not an expert
I've gone ahead and pulled the trigger, Nilos and crocodile on the reverse. Thanks for the advice everyone!!! It helps to have some extra eyeballs look at stuff.
This coin looks generally OK. There is some sharpness to the mouth and nose areas that seem a little suspect, but this could be due to over-aggressive smoothing in the fields in front of these devices: I don't know how the spaces between the individual letters of the legend at 3 o'clock would be so well delineated while the letters themselves aren't distinguishable, but again, this may be due to overly aggressive smoothing in between the letters. Can you show the reverse?
Hi @IdesOfMarch01 I'd share the reverse here but the item has already been removed from the seller's website. The reverse is Nilos reclining left with a crocodile by his side. The reverse looks like it has received some normal wear and tear after circulating for some time, but nothing indicative of tooling. I'd rate the condition as F/VF. Once the coin is in hand by the end of next week I'll post a new thread with a full attribution. Thanks for your comment.
My guess is that the coin will be fine. The obverse legend might have been very high relief when originally struck and thus could have worn (in circulation) in that manner.
