Help identify coin Sestertius

[idesofmarch01]

Let me preface my post by writing that I appreciate the specificity of every poster's reasoning regarding their opinion on whether or not this coin is tooled.  All too often coins are presented as "tooled" or "not tooled" with no supporting illustrations or information.  I think it's always preferable to provide illustrations and the reasoning behind these opinions.

12 hours ago, Etcherdude said:

@singig that trough under the chin sure looks like it was dug into the metal to me.

In addition to the region under the chin, I see a distinct trough/rut running vertically, defining the neck (left picture):

To my eye, the bottom (deepest part) of the trough appears to be below the nominal surface of the surrounding field.  I assume that this trough couldn't be created by a die strike.

In order to test my observation and assumption, I compared this area to the similar Trajan sestertii included in the picture (right picture), as well as high-resolution pictures of my portrait sestertii (not shown here), and didn't observe anything resembling a trough next to the outline of the portraits.

Notice also in the left picture that the device immediately to the right of the lower part of the neck (circled in red) also appears to be very sharply defined with a possible rut/trough on either side of it.

So it still appears to me that this trough, as well as the one under the chin mentioned by Etcherdude, were somehow created by a process other than the original strike.  For now, my only explanation is that a small tool was used to etch this rut in order to better define the portrait.

11 hours ago, dougsmit said:

I see no tooling but ample proof that lighting angles can make the same coin look different.

While manipulation of the light source can affect the sharpness of this and other edge shadows in a photograph, it wouldn't be possible to create an equally sharp edge shadow in the right picture's neck since there simply isn't any edge to be sharpened by the light source

Edited September 20, 2022 by idesofmarch01
Clarification