A ancient coin I sold at the market. Buyer sent it to NGC and had it stabbed. Graded Choice XF Strike 5/5. Surfaces 3/5 Brushed
Scratches that go over raised details, and generally go in the same direction. Dies two millennia ago weren't polished like they are in modern times during prep.
True, but part of flan preparation sometimes involved scraping the unstruck surfaces with a cheese grater (or ancient equivalent, apparently). Some examples: SIKYONIA, Sikyon 335-330 BCE AR stater, 23 mm, 12.3 gm Obv: Chimera standing left; wreath above, ΣE below Rev: Dove flying left; A to left; all within wreath Ref: BCD Peloponnesos 220; Traité III 775, pl. CCXX, 11 CNG 342, from the "collection of a Southern Pathologist, purchased from C.H. Wolfe, 3 May 1989" PONTOS, Amisos 85-65 BCE, time of Mithradates VI Eupator AE 22 mm, 7 gm Obv: Aegis facing Rev: AMI-ΣOY; Nike advancing right with shouldered palm branch; monograms flanking Ref: SNG BM Black Sea 1177-1191; HGC 7, 242 On the Antiochos Epiphanes tetradrachm shown in the OP, to me it looks more like someones misguided or clumsy attempt at cleaning encrustations from the fields. Maybe the "brushed" note means the devices, which look a bit polished. Don't get me wrong-- it's still a very nice coin
The lines in front of the standing figure are too fine to be from a cheese grater. The key is to see if they go over the devices.
My point is that sometimes ancient coins are clumsily cleaned or relieved of encrustations by hasty scratching with an object which leaves dents or scrapes on the coin, and this is generally confined to the fields. It's hard to say what the grader meant based on these pictures but am speculating that "brushed" really meant "cleaned with a pointed object". Perhaps those lines marked in yellow are just flan adjustment marks like the coins I showed previously. maybe they're artifacts of the images. On the other hand, the devices do look polished relative to the fields, so perhaps that's what the grader meant by "brushed" since typically the other types of marks are labeled "cleaning scratches".
So would the word "Brushed" on the label send collectors running and screaming in the opposite direction the same as words like Cleaned. Corroded Scratched Damaged do on American coins ?
It is not always easy to tell in photos but scratches that are raised on the coin could well be the result of polishing or filing a die. Recessed scratches are either from flan preparation or cleaning. What I see in this case looks like cleaning with a pointed object to remove encrustations in the fields. I don't see brush like scratches on the high parts but they do look polished as TIF pointed out. Why the slab mentioned one and not the other, IDK. Raised field lines from die prep? Recessed lines from blank prep/filing
Brushed means exactly what it sounds like.... cleaned with a wire brush. The result is fine scratches on a coin, sometimes all over the coin, sometimes in a localized area. It’s not something that always shows up in a photo. We are well aware of the differences between brushing, adjustment marks, die polishing lines, scratches, graffiti etc....
