Tooling Question
furywiz
Posts: 54 ✭✭✭
I am sure this is obvious to the seasoned people here, but I have essentially no experience in looking at too many tooled coins.
Is the tooling in this piece around United States and “Am” on the obverse? It still looks like an attractive piece to me but am having difficulty placing a value on it with the details grade.
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Were the fields played with along the back of the bust creating that darker area following the design? Any chance you can provide larger photos? Perhaps split the obverse and reverse into two? Sometimes things like tooling can be hidden with lighting, so even obvious work can be difficult to see in a photo.
Maybe the grader was a tool and so instead of a grade …awww never mind, I’m just trying to make heads or tails of it. It’s a real nice XF-45 to a debatable AU 50, in my view. That notch in the neck is questionable. Looks nice.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Unfortunately this is what I’m stuck with, as it’s a potential purchase and not in hand. The TV is much better than the seller’s pics.
It appears after the tooling it was burnished.
peacockcoins
If the seller’s pictures are not good, I might consider continuing the search. My experience with TVs is that they tend to make the coin look better than it is.
The whole coin has a smoothed look to me. It has a lot wear, down to VF-30 or so sharpness, yet there are no noticeable marks other than the big one on the neck, which is too deep to smooth.
I don’t know your budget, but I tend to avoid “details” coins. I’d prefer to get a straight grade, like EF-40. Whatever you do, buy a piece that has been certified by a well-known and reliable TPG. Dangerous counterfeits of $3 gold coins have been in numismatic circulation since I was a kid collector in the 1960s and before.
I think it was tooled on both sides. If I were selling it, I'd start and half Grey and keep dropping the price until it sold. If I were buying it...I wouldn't. Everyone has there own preferences. I abhor tooling, when if less extensive than that piece.
Thanks for the responses. I’m still learning, and embarrassingly, that concept hadn’t readily occurred to me that the entire thing was put through the wringer. I originally thought of “tooling” and I think specific areas, not the entire coin!
My eye immediately goes to the field behind the neck and head. The coin as a whole looks messed with, but that specific area looks particularly funky.
It would help to know the cert number as the image you posted does not enlarge well. My first thought is the hair curls don't look quite like they should- maybe "doctored" out of solder?
Young Numismatist • My Toned Coins
Life is roadblocks. Don't let nothing stop you, 'cause we ain't stopping. - DJ Khaled
Any expensive coin not in a respected TPG holder is a problem coin. Caveat emptor.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
It's in a PCGS holder
If you can ... pass.
I think the "tooling" is more of a smoothing that was applied to the cheek, the area in front of the face, and especially the open area between the feathers and "STA" of STATES.
Your obverse does look scraped.
I was comparing it to one I recall having in a type set. As to value ? At least it’s authentic.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Just behind the head on obv - looks like there may be some smoothed-over scratches, and more pronounced between the ‘1’ in the date and the wreath on the rev where it looks like some mark or blemish was tooled over.
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Agree. ⇊ Like they picked away at the carbon(or whatever)when cleaning it.
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Yes, that could certainly be it.
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The reverse has tooling all over... Above the 3 where the wreaths meet there are toolign marks. The circled place above.
The outline of the ribbon on the bottom left.
If you were filling a hole in a Dansco it would be a decent coin but... Coin is tooled extensively.