am 14.12.2002 1:19 Uhr schrieb Giancarlo Paganelli unter
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> Question
>
> Is a filed lip coneshell of F+ grade?
>
> When I started my collection I was very  ignorant about shells and all my
> cones seem to be very atractive.
> After some time I realized that at least 30 % of them had the outer lip
> filed.
> At the exhibitions you can use a good lens or an exercised eye, but  buying
> from a list you can have unpleasant surprises.
> Now I hope that the use to fil the lips will end.
> I think that the dealers should refuse to buy from divers cones so mended;
> in this way perhaps this use could stop.
> In the meantime every dealer should declare if a cone has the lip filed. In
> this case I think the grade is at most F.
>
> I should very happy to have the opinion of collectors and dealers on that
> point.
>
> Ciao
>
> Giancarlo
>
> *****************
> www.coneshell.net
> *****************
Filing of lip in cone shells is the most common repair in this family. It is
always made to remove a lip chip, but in this way it looses much more of its
shell. But they look better, and it is sometimes very hard to see that there
was a repair done. Even I think filing is not as bad as "doctoring" a poor
specimen with the help of glue and paint into a Gem I also hate filed cone
lips. The problem is, that filed lips are so common and I think it is
impossible to wipe out this practice fully. When buying a shell I think
about if it still has a (scientific) value. In case of a very rare specimen
I tend to think so. But first of all: a dealer should always state that the
lip was filed (and to which extent).
Grading of cone shells with filed lips: sometime lip files are very small
and hard to see, for example when there is only a 1 mm file at the base of
the lip and the other part is still in perfect condition. I would grade this
F+ and state: very slightly filed at base. In some cases the file is done
over the whole lip and reduced the lip for 1 or more centimeters. In this
case the shells looks unnatural. I would grade this as "good" (what means
"bad").
Mr. Aiken was asking for the grading of Cypraeas found dead: If there is
still some gloss left it could be "good" or F, depending on the actual
overall condition of the shell. "fresh dead" could be also graded as F+. But
I think it is important to give further information in the listings.
Hoping that this might help a little.
Best regards to all!

Wolfgang



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