Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;IdesOfMarch01, post: 1697830, member: 39084&quot;]This is, indeed, the crux of the matter in this thread.&nbsp; If you&#039;re new to collecting ancient coins, your first thought might be &quot;Gee, what&#039;s the big deal -- a little edge enhancement only makes the coin look better.&quot;&nbsp; But how does you know that edge was really there, or was that well engraved, in the first place?&nbsp; This line of reasoning quickly becomes insidious, and to some extent a rationalization.&nbsp; Accepting tooling renders coin grades essentially meaningless, since an &quot;almost EF&quot; coin can become &quot;EF&quot; with just a tiny bit of tooling -- but maybe that level of detail never existed on that coin due to a weak strike or a poor flan.</p><p><br /></p><p>If there&#039;s an argument to be made in favor of accepting tooling, it might be that the buyer is looking only for a historically accurate reproduction on an ancient flan.&nbsp; But if that&#039;s the case, why not just go all the way and have the coin tooled to represent the highest quality and relief the flan will support?&nbsp; I tend to doubt that this thinking represents most collectors (at least on this site), most of whom would desire the most accurate, least manipulated coin they could afford.</p><p><br /></p><p>By the way, I accept that some smoothing of bronzes&#039; fields is acceptable, both to remove potentially harmful debris as well as render the flat areas -- which had no detail in the first place -- closer to their original state.&nbsp; But even here care must be taken, since smoothing can remove actual coin surfaces (not just debris), which would be regarded the same as tooling.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in