What's the go-to for ancients?

I have no idea if Athena uses naval jelly. But what you describe is not what happened in my case. Within a few months the bluish tone had largely disappeared by itself -- not by darkening, but simply by vanishing, leaving a typical silver color where it had disappeared. I then got rid of the rest by briefly soaking it -- and I mean briefly -- in a solution of distilled water and baking soda, according to a formula given to me by the ancients dealer Brad Bowlin. No harm was done!

 

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I think Bargain Bin is a particularly good place to look - interesting coins and the prices for virtually everything are very reasonable. While vCoins is good and I particularly recommend sellers like Aegean and Incitatus, EVERY dealer there has at least a few coins way overpriced.

 

We can add Charachmoba Gym to this list also. Many of their coins have a similar, yellow sand patina to them.

 

The topic of eBay is a bit controversial. I would recommend newbies buy from it, but only from reputable sellers (e.g. people that also sell on VCoins, people with physical shops (not including Mr. LowRating_HighPrice of course) etc.). I pretty much only buy from sellers here in the UK, and don't know which sellers in the US or CA (which I assume OP is from given the use of the word "dollar") are good or not, but maybe someone here has a list.

Once able to identify fakes, I would say most "random" sellers can be bought from, although there is still an element of risk. I have almost 500 coins in my collection, and I'd say about 400 of them came from eBay. I've only bought two fakes that I know of (a Bulgarian Probus antoninianus), and that was sold by a very well known London dealer in a group lot, and one that I knew was fake before I bought it, but thought it was interesting anyway. I also have a Balbinus that is pretty suspicious. I've taken it to show experts in person, and they even they can't say for certain lol.

With that said, I pretty much only buy antoniniani, which aren't particularly commonly faked (and least compared to early denarii, Alexander tets etc.). I probably wouldn't buy on eBay if I collected a "higher risk" category of coins.

Obviously, VCoins and ma-shops sell less fakes than eBay, but I find they generally charge more (and there's less of a chance of finding a hidden rarity), so I don't tend to use them as much. I do like to buy at auctions, though, particularly from Roma. Local coin fairs are also some of my favourite places to buy from.

My fakes:

Probus. Ex Bulgarian studio


Constantine. Apparently from 1965 if the reverse is to be believed (which is the reason why I bought it). I have since removed the weird white deposits, that seemed to be some sort of gum


My sus Balbinus. I (foolishly?) believed the seller's story when they said it was a metal detecting find (details checked out including the seller's location and find spot matched up). I regret buying it - it only weighs about 3.33g, so if it is ancient, it's most likely a fouree.

 

I've bought many coins from Forum and also Incitatus.

Since his name was mentioned as being at a coin show, I suppose Allen Berman is still a coin dealer. One can get some pretty good Byzantines from him. And what fun the Byzantine starter kits were! (the 4 'junk' coins for cheap). And they generally weren't that bad. His $3 Heraclius S 805 was about the same as a vcoins $30 one.

And there's Harlan J. Berk, Jon Kern, etc. I've gotten deals from them (in the 90s-early 2000s).

I don't know if Dr. Alexander Fishman is still active, but I bought a lot of coins from him, c. 2006 to 2009.

I think there used to be a German firm on vcoins, Byzantium Coins, or thelike. I ordered from there successfully in 2009.

 

I have just found in my basement 2 Roman coins I got as a teenager in the 1950s. Ancients are not m main interest, but I want to found out more about these. The silver one came in an envelope that said "Antastia Family 132-125 BC Roman Republic." I figure Antastia Family was a prior owner. The other just says "Ancient Roman." The picture is actually easier to read than the coin. Does anyone have any ideas about these 2 coins and/or their value? Any ideas on how to find out? Thanks in advance.

 

You'd be more likely to get some responses if you began a new thread to ask your question, which has nothing really to do with the subject of this thread. The photos are very blurry, but I strongly suspect that the reference to the "Antastia [sic] family" does not signify the prior owners -- if it did, we would have a headline news story! -- but refers instead to the gens or family of the moneyer who issued the coin, namely the Antestia family.

 

The silver one is one of these - Cr. 238/1 (as Donna says, the moneyer was from the Antestia gens):

http://www.tantaluscoins.com/coins/41797.php

The other appears to have Trajan on one side and the Dioscuri on the other - probably a Roman Provincial.

ATB,
Aidan.

 

Thanks for responding. I am still trying to figure out how to use CoinTalk and how to do a new thread. I am also trying to figure out how to take nice postible photos. I will try again.

This is really helpful. I appreciate your assistance.

 

"Buy the book before the coin". Avoid eBay until you have a better sense of how ancient coins are offered for sale on multiple venues. Almost all the dealers on VCoins are safe, and you can presume and rely on the guarantees. Although some of the pricing on vcoins is a bit ambitious, you can also see that many of the dealers there have other web-presences, and perhaps you will find the same coin at a somewhat better price directly from their own site. VCoins is very good to get an idea of what a coin might reasonably cost -- you don't have to worry about the fake "$25 Julius Caesar " tempting you.
But it is very tempting to jump into Ancients at low price points and find yourself with unappealing coins you are not interested in, hard to resell except at substantial loss. So, "buy the book [or website] before the coin".

 

Insightful, thank you. I read somewhere that eye appeal is very important in ancient collecting, so I don't mind going a bit above what I typically would pay for a nice example, so I'm going to try not to buy cheap junk just because it's cheap. I've been reading a thread called Ancient Coin Collecting 101 from NumisWiki, and getting some good beginner tips there as well.

 

The collectibles market is crazy at the moment. Major auction houses are selling coins (generally slabbed) for an order of magnitude more than they are worth (Eddy I pennies and Gordy III denarii for $1k - as long as they are captured in that all important slab lol!). I believe the unknowledgeable cashed-up COVID-era investors have been let loose, buying up whatever they think looks good, inflating prices and making stupid decisions - like clowns running through a minefield. They'll never get their money back.

I unashamedly buy many coins from eBay but i know my product well. eBay auctions are great, and hammer price is usually well below retail. The "make offer" option for Fixed Price listing also can yield bargains, but please be respectful of the seller and don't lowball beyond 10% off. Don't venture out onto eBay if you don't know the coin well.

Prices on vcoins and Ma-Shops are generally on the strong end of reasonable, but a safe place to not get completely ripped off. As a newbie, I suggest you start here.

Good dealers in my experience: Incitatus Coins, Cerberus, Ken Dorney, Dr Busso, David Connor, Sphinx, Pars, GB Collection, Den of Antiquity, Victors Imperial Coins, Lucernae, Zuzim.

Oh, and Facebook groups for buying and selling coins are great - especially from members who have happy customers who can vouch for the seller.

 

I've been scouring VCoins for about a week now (along with some other websites), and I learned at least base level knowledge regarding different types, and sizes. In particular, I've liked the Gordian IIIs that were priorly mentioned, and in particular this one. This one is ten dollars out of my budget, but I think I can stretch a bit for a nice coin. What do you guys think?