I've been slowly getting more interested in ancients. The connection to history is fascinating and I love the fact that they're handmade objects two thousand years old. On a whim I picked up a cheap Ebay lot of ten small roman coins. My first ancients! So... I have some questions. Are they real? Sorry if this is a daft question. I really don't know what to look for except that (I think) the flans shouldn't look too obviously round. How do I go about identifying what they are? I know this is a massive subject. Any pointers as to where I can start very much appreciated! Most of them look to me like they've been over cleaned (a couple are *very* shiny!). Do you agree? The third coin below looks like it might have more detail hidden under the ancient gunk. Is tackling this wise? Finally, can anyone recommend a good beginners book on ancient coins? Apologies for the slightly clueless post and thanks in advance!
They look like typical lower grade late roman bronzes. They are authentic. I wouldn't try to clean the third, I think you will find there aren't any more details to be had really. As for books, there are quite a few. There is one by Van Meter called, " A handbook of Roman Coins" which is cheap. Sears Roamn Coins and Their Values 1988 edition, (pink cover), is a better one selling for about $50-$70. Those are a couple of good intro books to get you started. Let me know if you get them and yearn to learn more. There are websites that are great intros as well. Our Doug Smith here has a good one: http://dougsmith.ancients.info/ Chris
Congrats I agree all are authentic and not to clean the 3rd. I like the "Ancient Coin Collecting" by Wayne G. Sayles (granted I only own vol. 1 and 3) and the price aint too bad Dougs site is really great; I like http://wildwinds.com alot as well.
Sayles books are fun reading, but not too informational, (I own the series). I liked the Romaion and nonclassical cultures the best. However, they are more "light read" books than fact filled ones on the coins. Another option to the OP would be Rasial Suarez new book ERIC II, but it is $150. It is very complete and an excellent start to Roman Imperial and Byzantine though.
Thanks very much for the book suggestions and links. The Doug Smith site is great! I've just been reading his 'Dirty Dozen' page of most common Roman coins - seems a good place to start. Great to know these are real - it's amazing to me that you can pick up a coin that's 1600+ years old for about a dollar. I realise these aren't exactly museum grade specimens but I find them fascinating
Dirty Dozen will help with the first two but you need a better site for the third (and you need to show the reverse if you want help. For coins after the Constantnian period, I recommend: http://esty.ancients.info/ricix/index.html This is part of Warren Esty's site which has a lot of other features worth seeing including some aimed directly at beginners: http://esty.ancients.info/numis/ I'm sure several of you are good and tired of my opinions but I'll not soon stop. Consider it the price of any answers I give that you do like: Beginners would be better off buying a few slightly nicer coins than lots of real trash where the better coins look like the ones shown here. After you look at a few thousand coin with good details, it will be easier to 'read' coins like the ones shown here. After 45+ years of collecting ancients, I can identify one of the above coins with 80% certainty and the other two only partially. The one (the first) could be duplicated in a good looking example for $5 to $25 depending on where you shop and how perfect you require even though it is not a terribly common minor variety. The other two are in a similar or slightly lower bracket. I know you would miss the thrill of the hunt from uncleaned junk lots but lower priced ancients are available in conditions that are legible and tastefully cleaned, too. If you pay $1 each for 100 coins and get three that are reasonably nice and 97 dogs, you might want to consider buying ten individual coins, all nicer and all different, for the same $100.
This site is invaluable for identifying late Romans when you don't have much of a legend to work with.
And thats partly why I am hesitant to buy any of these "uncleaned" lots. Im very picky with my money & where it goes.
I agree. I was fortunate enough to know some real sellers of uncleaned coins, not cherrypicked, and bought many from them back in the day, (7-10 years ago). I found many rarities, Cleo VII, rare rulers, etc. However, I would say 99+% of Ebay "uncleaned" coins are simply floor sweeping of coins that have been picked through multiple times for any trace of value. Nowadays I do not know of a good source of true uncleaned coins, so I simply buy better cleaned ones. Edit: Btw Paul we all started out excited about being able to buy inexpensively ancient coins. It is fun! Our subsequent advice here is just from collectors trying to help you out to build a lifelong collection that will be both appreciated by you more and will financially appreciate more. I think we all understand your enthusiasm, and am jealous since we remember how excited we were starting out.
Thanks very much for the advice all - I appreciate folks taking the time to give such full and useful answers. I looked at a few 'uncleaned' Ebay lots but didn't go for them for a few reasons. I noticed that some of the sellers described themselves as nighthawks. I know that wondering if archaeological sites had been damaged in the collection of the coins would destroy any enjoyment I might have taken in owning the coins. I'd be interested in other folks views on this. I've also read that ancient coin cleaning takes time and skill and that it's possible to wreck a good coin by over cleaning and destroying the patina. It's something that I'd like to learn more about once I have a better idea of how well cleaned coins should look. My assumption is that there would be more uncleaned coins available here in the UK than in the US but I could be wrong about this. I take the point it's going to be much harder to research and identify a coin that is very worn and incomplete and I'm not sure I'd want to build a collection based on coins of this grade. That said, these low grade coins have really captured my imagination. For the price of a couple of beers I'm happy I'm going to read up and perhaps get myself to a coin fair in the new year so I can see some better grade coins in the flesh.
