Are Crusted worth it?

I continue to believe that we would be better off if we looked at both coin activities as Ken suggested we do cleaners.

Buying coins for their investment potential has one serious shortcoming. You have to sell them to cash in. Over the years I have bought hundreds of coins that I could sell for more than I paid and more hundreds that I'd be lucky to get anything close to what I paid. The problem is I don't want to sell the ones people would buy and people won't buy the ones I have outgrown. That is a lose-lose situation. If I look at what I learned and the fun I had along the way, it turns into a win-win even if I threw away the ones I can't sell. The difference is very much like yesterday's lunch and Bruce McNall's career: Fun While it Lasted.
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1...1.1.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0.orNzJfaMTqA

The above link shows many photos of Bruce McNall, his book (both as expected) and half a dozen ancient coins. The first four coins shown are all mine. What are they trying to tell me? The fifth one belongs(ed?) to Valentinian. Google picked up our discussion here in 2014:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/book-review-fun-while-it-lasted-by-bruce-mcnall.256309/

 

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Well, that is the shortcoming of any and all investments.

Are ancient coins a good investment? Sure, if you know what you are doing. But, one really has to know a LOT to make it work, as well as time and patience. Most who bought from NFA will never see their money recovered (at least from the 1980's period). But, Bruce's book is great and I would once again recommend anyone to buy it, just a couple dollars on Amazon or any other site. It shows a lot of insight into the greed of the average person, even if he doesn't focus as much on the coins as he did on the horses and basketball.

 

...months...years...

 

Browsing on e-bay, I sometimes see "uncleaned ancient" coins offered with pictures that show globs of dirt. I suspect that these were some that had enough design showing that the seller knew they were worthless and dirtied them up a little more. On the other hand, sometimes I see some that have enough design showing that you can see what they are (ie Fallen Horseman, etc.) and those tempt me, but not to spend much money.

 

Yikes! Sure, you can buy them, but I guarantee 1% or less on the dollar. Think of it this way. You will recover maybe 1-2% of your money (in the real world likely exponentially less). Yea. sure. Do what you want, but you will just get 100% junk. Darn. Us experienced people just cant seem to save these guys.

Yea, well, you get what you get. Dont come to me with your one penny crap and expect several thousand dollars.

Oh, yea. I dont deal in one penny crap. Nobody else does. Wait, oh yea. There are countless people on Ebay just waiting to be scammed. You have been warned.

 

Wow, and I was afraid someone would be condescending... Take a look back at what I posted and tell me if 1) I want to buy "penny crap" and 2) if I were looking to make some money from it. Thanks for your valuable time (sarcasm).

 

There was a thread here quite recently (sorry, I'm on a phone and can't link to it easily) from someone in the process of cleaning a remarkably high quality group. Who knows if he can make an actual profit, but for sure he could net better than pennies on the dollar. I'm not disputing the general point that uncleaned lots are mostly junk, just warning against absolute assertions.

 

Correct. I think @zumbly has had some remarkable cleaning lots. So never say never. On the other hand, I tried my hand at cleaning and only found junk for my efforts.

 

Seems like there was someone on here recently that was buying "unknown" ancients and depending on the members here to identify them so he could resell them.

 

Someone else, I think, Bing. I've never had any luck with uncleaned lots though I did buy one or two early on. Now I just steer clear of them. Like most others here, I just don't have the patience or interest.

 

Seems like one of our posters from Britain had one that his son cleaned and did a phenominal job

 

Here is one that came out of an eBay uncleaned lot of 1000.

Constantine I
Thessalonica mint
319 AD
AE Follis
Obvs: CONSTANTINVS AVG, Bust left cuir. spear across right shoulder.
Revs: VICTORIA AVGG NN, Victory advancing left, holding wreath and palm branch. TSΔ
18mm, 2.6g
RIC VII 60

On a good day might go for $20 on eBay, other online dealers may ask $100 or more who knows. Probably not worth much, but is hard to find another. In other lots a found a Hanniballianus and a fourree tribute penny. I have the photos archived on my home computer but sold them years ago. Either one of those paid for the half the lot by themselves. Each uncleaned coin cost 50 or 60 cents before throw aways. I remember the Germans had particularly good uncleaned lots of 1st century coins and contained 3 or 4% silver. I regularly found Republican silver, Agrippa's, and legionary denarii.
But that had to been 15 years ago when such lots could be purchased, and I bought 10k+ coins to make the return worth while. One group of four I sold, unfortunately I have no photos, went something like 10 times the price of the others. I remember thinking this thing cleaned up nice, the buyer from Florida actually paid an extra $25 for next day shipping on a lot of 4 uncleaned coins. For all I know it could have been gold, but I was green back then and didn't use proper references.
I suppose the point to all this is I think most of the folks here wanting to get uncleaned lots are not expecting to find "treasures" such as these, but want a certain experience of discovering something new. My advice is to buy lots showing the actual coins, not the old here is what we expect you to find photos. Get good references for identification, the internet is not ideal for complete identification. Also stay away from vinyl flips, those things will break down and ooze oil all over your coin.

 

Because the only people on Ebay are the scammers or the scammed

 

Dang! Two times in one day I didn't make my thoughts very articulate. I'm sorry and apologize if anyone was offended. There have been a lot of threads lately about cleaning, and some have indicated they wanted profit from them. A good portion of ancient collectors seem to get 'taken' when they first get started. I know I did back in the 80's (that coin is now worth about what I paid for it then). It's just that in this day and age of instant information I dont want anyone to get 'taken to the cleaners'.

So.... @Kentucky I'm sorry. No offense was intended, but the written word is obviously much more difficult than I think it is.

 

Nah, kind of thought that. No big.

 

I figured there would be opinions on both sides on whether it was worth it to clean Crusties. Thanks for the info everyone.

 

It depends how crusted they are. If the crusts are very hard and stuck, they will hardly come off the surface. And with the cleaning, may damage the flan.
I use to forget the coins on olive oil or kerosene by weeks, months. From time to time, I change the liquids and scrub them with a hard-bristled toothbrush.
Sometimes it works.

 

Anyone who has been into coins for a few decades can be forgiven getting a bit upset when made 'Cassandra' for the umpteenth time. Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo but it came with a catch. She would always speak the truth but no one would ever believe her. It gets old after a while.

As far as the coins go, buy all you want. You can enjoy them as long as you don't try to profit financially from them. I really would like to have a coin showing Cassandra but, as far as I know, no one thought she was worth honoring.

 

If you don't like or trust eBay, fine. Don't go there. But I sell ancients on eBay, and your comment is 1) untrue, and 2) insulting.

 

plz pm me your ebay. I only buy from trusted providers that I know from there. Thnx, Brian