It seems obvious to me that this coin has been significantly tooled, particularly in the field in front of the bust and all around Sol. What say you? Would you buy it if the price was right? Or would you not want it at any price? This is a bit of a tough call for me, because I like the coin, and I don't mind a little unobtrusive tooling, but this one sits right on the edge of what I would personally deem acceptable tooling. Or is it OK? Am I completely off the mark?
You are correct. This tooling borders acceptable in my standards. What does not appear to be tooled are the legends, and they are nice and bold. If the price were right, it would come home with me.
I would probably stay away too, but mostly because the portrait scares me. However, creepy skeletal Sev Alexander may make a good coin to toss into a Halloween thread.
I would have to see the coin in hand. You say you do not think the legends are tooled, but without seeing the flan you cannot know that. Just last weekend I bought some coins, (surprise). But, out of a box I had pulled out two. Afterwards, I looked at them. Both had an imperfect flan, with a low point on the flan. Well, one coin had full legends, the other was missing legend in this low spot. To me, this proved the "full legend" coin was tooled, and I would have not really caught it if I didn't see the coin three dimensionally. I bought the "missing legend" coin for half the price of the tooled coin. If I would have seen them online, I probably would have bought the "full legend" coin. So, to me, online if I see any evidence of tooling at all the coin is off limits. If I can see it in hand to evaluate it, MAYBE. I just seriously hate tooling, not being able to trust ANYTHING on the coin since I can never be sure what is original and what is not. Smoothing I understand, especially for coppers. That is fine, but tooling no.
Well, it ended up selling for $26. I didn't bid. Y'all pretty much confirmed my reservations. I've learned the hard way that if there's something about a coin I don't like before I buy it, I'll grow to hate it after it's mine.
Yep, my experience as well. If you don't love it the instant you see it, you will never like it long term.
