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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Fugio1, post: 3111792, member: 89970&quot;]I’m particularly sensitive to “improved” coins because two of the first three ancient coins I purchased some 40 years ago were tooled.&nbsp; The reality is that tooling is often the only way to make some ancients marketable.&nbsp; Smoothing is extremely common, especially with ancient bronzes which are more susceptible to corrosion and more easily “improved” by smoothing.&nbsp; It is so common that even reputable dealers will not mention it in their listings unless it is blatantly obvious. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It is much more difficult to hide tooling on silver coins because of the brighter unpatenated surfaces, but often, part of the deceptive process for silver coins that have been tooled is to artificially darken them so that the tooling marks are less noticeable.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Last summer at a coin show, I purchased what I believed was a very high grade beautifully toned Roman Republican denarius.&nbsp; It was housed in a Kointain capsule inside of a flip. I NEVER buy coins at shows or shops without examining the raw coins, but this time I failed this basic personal rule and pulled the trigger in excitement.&nbsp; At home, I put the coin in better light without the containers, and found that it had been extensively tooled throughout the fields and some of the higher areas.&nbsp; Some would call these “cleaning marks”, but to me it is tooling.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]789729[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>Returning to the show, the dealer was happy to refund my money. Since this experience, I have learned that darkening of silver coins is a common practice in processing hoards in preparation for marketing.&nbsp; When silver coins that cannot be cleaned without tooling are found in the hoard, they are often darkened to hide the issues.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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