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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 2194905, member: 39084&quot;]To my eye, I agree that there seems to be some light but clear tooling in the fine detail on the obverse just above Trajan&#039;s ear (in the laurel wreath and hair -- easier to see in the enlarged version).&nbsp; I tend to doubt that these details would have survived being smoothed down as much as the rest of the high points (cheek, neck) of the obverse. There also seems to be similar enhancement on the reverse in the armor and detail of the left-hand figure.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can&#039;t be certain of this, and if it is indeed tooling it&#039;s very subtle, so feel free to take this with a grain of salt.</p><p><br /></p><p>Putting that concern aside, this is a very attractive sestertius with an interesting reverse.&nbsp; This is a hard one to resist.</p><p><br /></p><p>By the way, it has <b>not</b> been my experience that auction houses will admit that a coin is tooled unless it&#039;s extremely obvious.&nbsp; Last year Heritage sold a Colosseum sestertius whose reverse was EXTREMELY tooled (I saw this coin in person) yet described it as &quot;only minor smoothing in the fields.&quot;&nbsp; So don&#039;t ever assume that the auction house will admit that a coin is tooled.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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