An ancient newbie buys an uncleaned batch

Do not despair. I had what seemed to be a blank disk with brown mud. Months of leaving it in DW (ignoring it) and suddenly it began to show signs of a silver washed Constantine I VOT. Personally I don't use cotton buds, I prefer the cut down toothbrush.

 

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From what I've heard, dirty culls are the norm. Might be a nice one in the batch to keep you coming back for me. Me, I want to see what I'm buying. This is a good opportunity to learn though!

 

JWT is correct. You are extremely unlikely ever to find a real gem in an uncleaned lot, however, going through the cleaning process and identifying your coins is highly educational, you will learn a lot.

 

The education is the value!

 

Thanks for the reassurance and advice. I have 10 litres of DW left with no other use for it and in no rush! A couple look like bronze slugs.

 

The first lot I bought was 50 coins for $30 and I got about a dozen coins with moderately clear designs. I then bought 30 for $6 and got 2 reasonable ones. Gotta start imaging some and posting them. I see on e-bay all the time lots that the seller admits are culls.

 

If I got 2 coins out of 10 I thought I was doing quite well. The trick is to get your eye in and recognise what piles have coins with some detail.

If you want to try a batch from an online source like dirtyoldcoins or one of the other companies (not ebay), do your research, look for reviews of the companies.

No matter where you get yours from, the coins will have been picked over. If the seller claims that gold or silver have been found in their lots - walk away.

 

You may still find a few identifiable keepers.

My first foray into ancients was with uncleaned coins. I have "before" pictures in this post. I don't have any of the "after" pictures readily accessible, but most of them didn't look much different after soaking and cleaning for six months. A few from group B did turn out somewhat okay, meaning somewhat identifiable.

I did buy another large lot of uncleaned coins around that time. After six months of soaking and periodic brushing, I gave up. Two and a half years later, they're still soaking. I left them in a cup of olive oil and they're still in the cabinet, soaking away . One of these days I'll remove the olive oil and call it done. The oil has probably polymerized by now. I don't expect any improvement.

 

Day 4 and I'm picking up some negative vibes from the audience. There appears to be some doubt in my mind that the effort I'm going to is going to bear coins.

It'll be fine guys. No worries.

 

Ancients are so inexpensive, that I'd merely skip ahead and buy the already cleaned examples ... I mean honestly, for $20 you can score a pretty cool ancient without going through the efforts and avoiding the final disappointment ...

NOTE #1: but I'm extremely lazy (time is money)

NOTE #2: so lazy in fact, that I've never even tried cleaning a sack of dirty coins (so maybe it worth the hassle and perhaps most of the fun is in the "hunt & anticipation" phase)

NOTE #3: but refer to NOTE #1

 

Ooops ...

Oh, but sorry tulipone ... before I piss-off another new-comer, I'm just talking from my perspective (which I usually find out later is a twisted and distorted view)

=> I really should dig-deep and try cleaning a few ancients before I throw stones (but again, they are fairly inexpensive and most of the dudes that start out cleaning coins end-up merely buying the sure things)

... good luck collecting ancients, whatever your strategy ends-up being ...

=> Ancient coins rock!!

 

I have had quite a few uncleaned lots. I enjoyed cleaning, even the disappointments rarely phased me. Some people just don't like to do it, some people do. Some people don't even want to try. So long as you are enjoying yourself it doesn't matter. You WILL learn a lot from doing it.

Once you put your hand in your pocket and buy a coin that is nice, clear will full legends and details, the urge to clean may well fade. None of this matters providing you are having a good time.

 

I quickly came to this conclusion after my second lot of culls. Perhaps a couple identifiable low grade LRBs was all I was able o get. I quit going the uncleaned lot route. They've been picked over and over by people who know what to look for. You are not likely to come away with much of anything but junk!

 

You...twisted and distorted...I am shocked to my core...or is that corps?

 

i think in a way I decided to clean to find a focus. Whilst I'd rather have a bunch of perfectly cleaned gold ancients, I accept that this is somewhat unlikely. As indicted above, a good education is rarely free and I am kind of enjoying it so far.

@stevex6 - crack on. I enjoy your comments. It cannot be fun living in North Manitoba

 

There was a time - about five years ago i think - when you could buy "high grade" uncleaned coins. Although those would have been cherry-picked through long before they arrived on vcoins for sale, they were excellent value for money. For just a few bucks, and some light cleaning, you could get some really superb common 3rd-4th century coins. I think the "high grade" uncleaned coins have dried up.

 

Well there was that one ebay dealer who used to lace his uncleaned lots with tiny gold Indian fanams - as though you would typically find them among Roman coins!

There are a lot of frauds on eBay.

 

I am shocked!!!

 

eBay is amazing. I've seen so many coins of Romulus Augustus sell for only a few hundred dollars!

 

A timely update. Nothing changed apart from the water and some minor crud particles removed. Got bored and tried the electrolysis on one coin and lots of brown and some green came off. Still no really recognisable coin. Back in the water.