M4A1-S | Golden Coil (Field-Tested)

This is the M4A1-S | Golden Coil in Field-Tested (FT), and it sits in the lower part of the Covert rank: of ten Covert M4A1-S finishes, only two cost less. The M4A1-S | Golden Coil is in the Shadow Case, one of the oldest sets in the game.

What the M4A1-S | Golden Coil looks like in Field-Tested

The heart of the finish is saturated gold with a quilted diamond texture. It covers the suppressor and the shield by the magazine well, and it is this pattern you see first. The top of the receiver is dark, scattered with gold splashes and a loose curl; the figure does not read confidently as a snake, and only its outline can be made out. The stock is dark gray with a gold ornament and an orange butt pad, the grip is cream with gold flecks, and the magazine is gray-cream with a gold stripe. The ribbed handguard and the middle of the barrel stayed dark.

The texture sits on a convex suppressor, so its facets get worn down before anything else. The edge of the shield, the rim of the butt pad and the ribs of the handguard with the gold rings lighten next. The large gold planes on the sides hold out longer. But that is the trouble with gold: any scuff on it reads as a gray patch, not as a light matte haze.

Where the M4A1-S | Golden Coil came from

The work was drawn by Kitch.sb, who submitted it to the Workshop on August 30, 2015. It had a different title there: "Snakebite M4A1-S | Gunsmith Gold (+normal)". In the description the author said he had added a normal map and built the weapon in a new gunsmith style. He was posting this version, he wrote, in case Valve preferred it. In the game, The Shadow Collection opened on September 17, 2015. The finish's number in Valve's catalog is 497.

What to check before buying

• float: it shows how worn down the diamond texture on the suppressor is;


• what the previous owner left on the M4A1-S | Golden Coil: stickers and an applied name tag.

The artwork is identical on every copy. The scale span here is 0.15 to 0.38. On the M4A1-S | Golden Coil the 0.15 to 0.38 band is wide: one wear label, different conditions.

What the M4A1-S | Golden Coil costs in Field-Tested

The wears compare like this:

• Factory New costs about three and a half times more;


• Minimal Wear runs about one and a half times higher;


• Well-Worn takes about a fifth off;


• Battle-Scarred takes off about a fifth as well.

A sensible ceiling here is Minimal Wear at one and a half times the price: it gets you noticeably cleaner gold. Beyond that, at Factory New, the extra money goes to the cleanliness itself.

By rank the skin is third from the bottom. Only two finishes cost less, each by a bit more than a quarter. Mecha Industries and Chantico's Fire cost more than one and a half times as much, while one more finish and the Cyrex cost several times more. The top of the rank is held by Imminent Danger and Welcome to the Jungle.

Getting the M4A1-S | Golden Coil

The direct route is the Shadow Case. A contract also yields the M4A1-S | Golden Coil: ten skins of the rank below, the same collection. And the Covert rank of this collection goes further, into a craft for the Shadow Daggers.

StatTrak and Souvenir

Stickers and craft on the M4A1-S | Golden Coil

A StatTrak version of the M4A1-S | Golden Coil exists. Souvenir copies of this finish turn up too, but no packages were released for it: they were made only for the tournament map collections. Such copies are built through the Souvenir-O-Matic, which puts gold tournament stickers and a player autograph on an ordinary skin from your inventory.

Gold overpowers most stickers, especially yellow and beige ones: they simply dissolve. Black, deep blue and red stickers give contrast. The stock and the magazine are the freest. The suppressor with its texture is a pity to cover, since the finish is taken into a craft for CS2 precisely for it.

Who this wear suits

Field-Tested is a sensible choice for the M4A1-S | Golden Coil when at least one of these fits:

• you want a gold M4A1-S for CS2 at a price from the lower third of the Covert rank;


• scuffs on gold do not bother you: by 0.38 a fair number build up;


• you value the texture of the diamonds over the subject: the snake in the artwork barely resolves.

Closer to the upper bound, the diamond facets on the suppressor are smoothed and the gold looks duller. The even texture holds up to roughly 0.20.