Has anyone ever bought from Crusty Romans?

Hi guys, I live in New Zealand and so getting my hands on some nice ancient coins can be pretty hard. I also risk losing a lot of money and time if I buy from ebay or similar sources.
I found this website called www.crustyromans.com who sell by weight instead of per coin, meaning they supposedly haven't gone through the coins picking out the good ones and making sure to give you a bunch of blanks. Has anyone ever bought from them or heard of them? They're based in England and quite pricey when i convert it over to New Zealand dollars :/

Thanks in advance!

 

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Hey Aaron,

Just saw that you live in NZ. I'll be taking a trip (with a dance company) there in May-June - if there are any US/foreign coins you want me to bring your way (or that I should bring with me for local collectors), let me know! (Within reason, obviously I won't be able to bring 50 rolls of quarters with me.)

 

Have you tried Harlan Berks , I don't think they sell by weight , but they have a great reputation and are honest . They have cheaper coins up to super expensive . They're in Chicago .
https://www.harlanjberk.com/

 

Thanks a lot for the offer but I've got plenty of foreign coins already! More into ancient ones now. I hope you have a good time here in NZ!

 

Just bought/received 1.3kg of Byzantine scyphate trachy cup coins from Crusty Romans...........here they are. They are clearly hoard coins, many concreted together and the early signs are that they are cleaning up nicely, with good detail and sound metal underneath, as one would expect with hoard material.
The hoard looks to have been waterlogged, or wet at some point as the corrosion is a little 'rusty' in some places and water lines can be seen that have formed on the clump in picture 3. There are probably about 350 coins there, so there will be some rarities hidden under the grime. I'll post some cleaning pics in stages......
I am doing something which I ordinarily WOULDNT with these, due to the nature of the encrustation, and using some nasty stuff to get the crud off. It is controlled, I have experience with the chemicals and all precautions are used including a fume cupboard, safety equipment etc etc.
I am using powerful chemicals...so i will not be naming them in this thread....... purely because I do not want a beginner or inexperienced cleaner trying this themselves and melting their fingers.
If you have experience in cleaning and want the technical details, PM me, its not a secret, but I dont want the details in open thread.

 

Thanks! I'd love to see the end results of those I think I might go and give them a go, I have my eye on a few of their hoards that seem most promising, I'll definitely make another thread once they arrive.

 

Hi Aaron, I'm also in nz n know what you mean about finding it hard to find coins n the risks of buying from ebay. Iv been buying off crusty romans and have found them great. Only had a couple of lots (n I've brought some off a lot of their hordes) that are so/so but overall iv found them really good! Great customer service as well which is a bonus. Hope this helps.

 

Hi there. I brought 30 of these ones and tried to get some more but they had sold out... lol now I know why. Any chance I could buy some off you???

 

Any progress on this?

 

Just went on their website and they're selling a beautiful looking lot of greeks that are pretty much fully cleaned. So tempting.. at the price its at it looks like it's roughly $4 a coin (usd). Still a lot of money to buy 1/16th kg though :/

 

But at least you can see what your getting and they look OK.
I brought some of their cleaned byzantine coins and I was happy with what I got. I don't buy from them any more (and I was getting LOTS!) As I had too many duds and crappy lots and as you know the nz$ doesn't go far when your buying in £.
How are you getting on with finding coins to clean up, especially being here in nz?

 

These are the only people I've really bought from, there are a few good sellers on ebay but their auctions end up going for quite a lot. I just bought 10 off a seller called desimone_1 for 30 bucks and 8 of them are such a low grade that when you touch them with a toothpick or put them anywhere near water all of what's left of the detail falls apart (definitely not buying from him again). If you're interested have a look at the seller detector_who, every few weeks or so he sells a few lots of uncleaned Romans that are in EF/VF condition even before cleaning.

In regards to Crustyromans, I've only bought from them 3 times and I would say for 2 of the lots I broke even, but one of them I got a silver denarius that pretty much paid for the lot. So in my experience they have been pretty good to me and to be honest I'm a bit cautious going anywhere else. I just wait until I see a good 'hoard' going on their website. And yeah, it's god damn expensive when you're paying in British Pounds haha.

 

Hey there, brought just under 100 late Romans off detector_who so it's going to be interesting to see how they clean up once they arrive. Call me crazy but I really enjoy cleaning up "crustys" and researching what I find.

 

Good luck, hopefully you'll get some great coins. In his auction pictures I've seen some amazing quality coins so I'm sure you'll get more than your moneys worth. I also love cleaning them. For me, cleaning crusty ancients is the best part of the hobby. Let us know how you do with your coins

 

Coins you buy from Crusty Romans are obtained through illegal trafficking. Steer clear.

 

Welcome @Jetro Hamps

 

Whoa, pretty big bump I haven't bought any coins in a long time but I was thinking of buying another lot from them some time in the near future. I have had some really interesting coins come from them, and have honestly not found a better seller anywhere. Where did you hear about this and what evidence do you have? I have no doubt there are plenty of dealers and sellers out there who do shady business, but these guys have always seemed good (not to mention incredible customer service).

Here is a quote from their website: "All of our Hoards are purchased ethically with appropriate export approval from the country of origin."

I'm not quite sure if they would be able to get away with lying about that. I imagine they might even be able to show some paperwork if a buyer asked for it. Besides, if they were involved in illegal trafficking I'm sure their prices wouldn't be so high. I tend to believe that they are indeed ethically obtained (hence their high price-points) unless I see evidence stating otherwise.

 

I would appreciate it if you would provide evidence of this....
If you cannot, then you should not make claims like this.
I have spoken in person to the owner of CR and he is a decent guy.

 

I don't know why it would be particularly harder to purchase ancient coins in NZ. I'm in Australia and have had no difficulties.

If you want uncleaned Roman coins, my pick is:
http://dirtyoldcoins.com/

Uncleaned ancient coins used to be widely available on vcoins, but it looks like the supply has dried up significantly.

There is no such thing as "unsearched" uncleaned coins by the way. All the obviously good stuff (gold, and most of the silver) is removed soon after excavation. After this, the coins will change hands many times, and anything of obvious value is taken and sold separately, before the coins arrive in your hands. In what's left - you may still find something of interest, perhaps an overlooked gem underneath thick encrustations of dirt. I gave up on uncleaned Roman coins - 95% of what you get is common coins of Constantine and his family, which gets boring after a while. I find ancient Greek uncleaned coins more interesting.

 

I agree Greg, but with architecture all of mine have been bought from US and Europe, portrait and other collecting themes seem plentiful. Do you find our coins are a bit expensive here?