Hello all, I recently got into ancient coins and dont know to much about collecting them. I bought a few uncleaned from ebay to practice on. These are 2 that have been cleaned with just water + dish soap + toothbrush. Are any of these attributable... clean more? I a, getting into these because im a history buff. I enjoy getting a bunch of dierty ones and trying to clean them up. the images 1 front and 1 back are the same coin - and it seems like just symbols and no text?
Welcome ! No positive ID's from me unfortunately, yet. On the first one the symbols might be text, though i don't recognize is as Arabic. Could be Sankrit derivative from India, but again don't recognize it at first glance. On the second the text seems to be Latin, maybe with standing figure on front of boat ? It may be helpfull if you indicate size and weigth of these two.
The second is late Roman with reverse Victory and legend Salus Reipublica which was used by Valentinian II, Theodosius, and Arcadius, and Honorius. I do not see enough obverse detail to guess which. I may be imagining it but I think I see the ANT mintmark for Antioch. These are notoriously awful condition and very common. Finding a really nice one might take some work. Compare: http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?search=similar:664757
Thanks for the replies. THCoins, i also didnt recognize the markings on coin 1.. it is around the size of a US nickel but not as thick. I will measure when i get home from work. Dougsmit, do you think it requires further cleaning (soak in distilled water / olive oil etc.)? Thanks again
