Uncleaned ancient source

Well somehow you guys infiltrated my son and now all he can talk about is getting some ancients. When I brought him to a show with me last week, he could care less about anything that wasn't old and indistinguishable. So since I have his attention collecting coins and away from video games, I'd like to get him a descent little pile of uncleaned coins to try his hand. With no cleaning experience, I'm just looking for him to gain the knowledge before he gets into higher end wares. Do you guys know where I can get a nice little stack for him to work on? Maybe fifty coins or so would be nice. I've seen the eBay coins, but some of those look really rough or all alike. Also and tips that you could share would be great. I've heard of the ridiculously long soaks in olive oil and distilled water, but I'm sure there must be other and better methods.

 

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Boil them in distilled water for hours and use cotton swabs about every hour. Keep the water filled because distilled water evaporates fast. A lot of surface dirt will come off that way and it's faster than just soaking, although I will soak them after that for a long time if they need it. Not all coins need to be cleaned.

Generally, slower the better and don't be impatient. Lots of people will give you tips about it.

 

Are you looking to adopt? I'll cook and wash the dishes for some ancient coins.

 

I've seen a few lots on amazon, but i heard cleaning them takes day(s), some even week(s). They usually only have bad reviews, and i think the site forbids me to post them, but you can look some up. The hobby is only about having fun, and sweat on your forehead.

As Gil said, try soaking them with distilled water.

-John

 

Distilled water evaporates, boils at the same temperature and rate as tap water.

 

These coins have survived a couple of thousand years and you are not about to hurt them easily. Boiling is a good idea, but I would use tap water. In most areas of the United States, the water is 500 ppm or less dissolved solids...to put that in layman terms, it is 99.95% pure. Now, having said that, I would not like to boil tap water to dryness, because it will leave residue. Also, I would follow up cleaning steps, including boiling with a distilled water rinse. Instead of cotton swabs, I have used a toothbrush which has had the bristles cut down to half length to make them stiffer. Lots of on-line sources for cleaning protocols. Try this one: http://www.romanorum.com/docs/A Method for cleaning ancient coins. Romanorum.com.pdf

 

This video was recommended in another thread but shows cleaning at 3 minutes.

Be sure to see the tiny numbers they painted on each coin.

 

Kirk, there was a place called dirty Roman coins which doesn't look like its up any more,i did buy some from them and weren't to bad. also there's one called crusty Roman coins which sell them, but looks like there in Europe. we have had many threads on cleaning them, so if you get some happy to help!

 

ausgezeichnet

 

Eng beat me to it. I don't clean coins, but from what I've read here, Dirty Old Coins is the place to start. http://www.dirtyoldcoins.com/

 

Thanks guys, that seems like a really good source. Any suggestions on which to go after, as in which are less likely to be worn flat when I get them? Beyond the really old, I think that I'm going to have to grab some middle age coins for my stash as well.

 

Good luck with whatever you get. I hope your son gets the "bug" so to speak.

 

Ya, make sure what ever you get post here, we all love to see what cool Ancients you come up with!!

 

For what it's worth, I bought an assortment from Dirty Old Coins ~3 years ago. The "before" pictures are here.

If you are going to buy uncleaned coins, I recommend instead buying a lot in which the exact coins you will receive are shown. If you can't see any details in the "before", the odds of the coin cleaning up relatively well are slim.

Edited to add: here's a how-to about cleaning which is worth bookmarking. It's the most comprehensive and detailed article I've seen.

 

Although I'm sure that cleaning ancient coins should probably be a pre-requisite to collecting them, I have found through other's comments that it is usually more wise and less frustrating if you merely "skip" the cleaning stage and move straight into the buying inexpensive examples phase ...

... ummm, said the dude that has never cleaned a coin and burns twenty-dollar-bills like they're sparklers!!

Oh, but that is awesome that your lil' dude likes ancient coins!!

=> spread the word, lil' dude!!

 

I believe most of our objections to beginners cleaning is one of doing things in order. Cleaning and collecting are two different hobbies. You would be more likely to do well and learn from the cleaning hobby if you did the buying professionally cleaned phase first. What you or your children will get out of $100 spent on uncleaned coins will be the experience of playing with them and a few identifiable but not particularly pretty coins. There will be a pile of slugs and a pile of coins worth about the same as last week's losing Lottery tickets. The same $100 spent on ten presentable coins that can be studied and 'collected' is what most of us prefer. Unless you are quite unusual compared to the many people who have asked this question before, you will not believe what we say. That is why many of us who learned the hard way expect that you will take that same path. We wish you well.

You will find people who will say I am wrong and tell how well they cleaned their coins. Some will even show with pride a pile of rough uglies explaining how much better they look now than before. Those are not the coins most of us prefer. You may.

 

Cleaning is fun and worth it to do it a few times if you have the right lots but like others here, I prefer to buy already cleaned coins. I started buying already cleaned coins first and glad I did.

 

Well that's why I asked the questions before I went down that path. Though it seems fun to me to bring them back to life, will it really encourage him to collect or am I setting him up for frustration and making him lose interest before he really gets going? I am mainly an early US proof collector and and not opposed to shelling some bucks to encourage him, but with no knowledge of ancient coins, I just didn't want to get burned too badly. Maybe I'll just stick around here with you guys a bit more and learn a bit before diving in. But really if I spent a hundred bucks on some nice quality commons, I can't think that would hurt him to keep up his excitement. It would be much easier on me if he collected US coins, I'm an encyclopedia and have a library of resource books at my house on the subject.

 

I have bought 3 lots of uncleaned coins. The first (and the best) was 50 coins for $30. I got 11 nicely recognizable coins from the lot. I then bought 5 for $10 and got 5 slugs. 30 for $6 netted me one good one. You pays your money and you takes your chance. Will I do more...the jury is still out on that. I agree that buying ones that have a picture of the actual lot is best if you can see some that have some detail. Just remember there are lots (punny) out there and don't be in a hurry.

 

I don't really bother with uncleaned coins anymore, but when I was starting out in college, they were a fun supplement to the other cheap coins I was getting for a while, but it wasn't something I saw much point in focusing on. I found the attribution part more interesting than the cleaning part, and it's not that hard to find lots of already cleaned late Roman bronzes that will give you that with less of a hassle. I wouldn't spend a full $100 on uncleaned at once. Maybe get him a small batch along with some other coins and see how he which he ends up caring about.