heres some more from my terrible Uncleaned lot purchase. First up are 5 slugs with absolutely zero detail whatsoever. Second we have probably the best one yet. Both sides are clearly defined and possibly attributable, although the major break may hinder an ID Obverse is a clear portrait of a somewhat chubby dude. Reverse appears to feature Victory facing left. Letter D to left of figure. “ISIS(?)” under figure. Third is another broken coin. Portrait is sort of defined, but reverse is obliterated. Finally we have something that doesn’t necessarily look Roman. The lettering is too fine, at least compared to what I’m used to. Unfortunately I can’t really get enough letters to see anything coherent. There also appears to be some kind of slivering or something, not sure what that coloring is.
It does look like a pretty disappointing lot. If you continue dabbling in uncleaned ancient coins, hope you find a better source for your next batch.
That last coin looks like an especially crusty 20th century piece, I can't quite place it but it kinda looks like a Yugoslav, or maybe some other eastern bloc coin. Almost certainly not ancient whatever the case, maybe a replacement by the seller with an ancient that is actually uncleaned and actually worth your time is in order! Edit: If you're interested in better quality, actually uncleaned dirt-encrusted coins there are some detectorist eBay sellers who routinely offer decent material. The first one who comes to mind is the Serbian igornaisus : https://www.ebay.com/sch/igornaisus/m.html and their bulk pile lots contain plenty of thickly dirt-caked coins that are actually uncleaned/unsearched. Their smaller gridded lots are generally partially cleaned and presumably searched. I've bought from them before and had no complaints with the coins or shipping to USA. As I recall I got from them a high-grade, smooth shiny patina Fel Temp Reparatio with galley ship reverse that was just a featureless dirty disk before I started working on it. I like galleys so was quite happy to uncover it. Nothing really valuable but some actually nice LRBs.
Yeah, I'm really bummed. First, I only received 11 of the promised 12 coins. Second, 1 of the 11 isnt even Ancient.... Can't win them all, but I certainly lose hard.
GREAT detecive work on the coin. I'm certain that's it. I can see those delicate devices in the center of the coin. I'm definitely going to tell the seller; maybe he's getting coins from a bad source or something. It's satisfying to uncover coins after so long, but unsatisfying when only a few are even attributable, much less attractive. Not too sure I'll do this again, but next time I have $15 and 5 hours to throw away, why not..
Huh cool, Yugoslavian made sense but I couldn't really tell. If you do ever get more uncleaned coins, avoid US resellers and study the pictures to make sure they are caked with dirt. If instead you see lots of green copper patina it's safe to assume they have been cleaned, searched, and are likely just low grade rejects like this batch. Good sources are out there, I've never been displeased with actual truly uncleaned dirt encrusted batches.
NARWIA (Narew) is in Poland - You could try there. The Narew river is a tributary of the Vistula River.
Thanks! I'll definitely keep that in mind for next time. I think the process of cleaning actually good coins will be a more rewarding and less frustrating experience.
Yes it is, but to get those "actually good coins" you should hunt for individual pieces up for sale that are still dirty and superficially ugly, which will scare away unperceptive potential competitors and make obtaining them affordable and then cleaning them an extremely rewarding project. I don't want to jinx myself but have just such a project planned for this great 35mm, 24.3g AE Hadrian Drachm of Alexandria that I won for about 90 shipped and is still in transit.: The typical collector will look at it and find fault with what they may assume are bubbly rough surfaces, but I scrutinized the pics carefully and decided it was a worthy gamble to bet on it actually just being dirty with a nice smooth chocolate patina underneath the dirt and mineral encrustations. Looking closely, the obverse legend, the crevices in the design elements and the fields all actually appear to be clogged with cleanable gunk instead of being corroded and damaged which many might assume at first glance. We'll see if the gamble pays off, but if it does I expect that I'll turn this 90.00 coin into a 250.00+ coin, and at worst I could still get my money back relatively easily if it doesn't respond to cleaning. It's hard to explain if you don't have much experience cleaning with tools under binocular microscope, but after a while one develops a pretty reliable ability to "see" underneath the dirt on coins, which makes locating good deals that only need a little TLC quite easy.
Wow, that’s awesome!! Shows what experience and education can do. I’m very much a novice with ancients; I only own a single AR Philip the Arab antoninius, which I actually got for free in a secret Santa here on CT. I’ve been trying to get away from US coins which I lost interest in several years ago. Ancients seem like a great place to pivot to, with low costs and amazing coins! It will take lots of time and probably lots of failures before I get anywhere near as skilled as you, but it seems like an adventure worth taking It’s intersting how you have an indescribable ability to look under the dirt. I consider myself something of an expert in vintage clarinets. I’ve been able to use my skills to “look under the surface” on clarinets every now and again. For example, I’m able to tell a Bb clarinet from an A clarinet even wjth terrible pictures. I did this once and bought a clarinet for $200 that ended up being worth $750 since it was an A clarinet. If it was Bb, it would have been like $250-300 tops. Thanks so much for all your help! Hopefully you’ll see me posting again here in the Ancients forum with some *actual* pickups soon
Yeah, many of us started with "modern" coins and moved to greener ancient pastures. Lots of Greek and Roman coins can be very cheap, but it's better to have a few quality coins than a bowl full of mediocre pieces. The awe and joy and stimulation provided by special or aesthetically superior examples is way greater than that provided by a big pile of cheapos. Just starting out you may want to sample a bit of everything to see what you like best, but try to buy quality as you go. LOL! I'm an ignorant noob compared to many very experienced and knowledgeable members here, but try to compensate and increase my success by hunting for good deals that others may overlook and cleaning quality but superficially unattractive dirty coins. *One of us!* *One of us!* *One of us!* I certainly hope you do come back with more ancients, and if you have any ideas about what you think you want to collect let me know and I'll send a list of relevant honest affordable sellers to take a look at, it'll be important to browse through and study sold coin listings also to see what market prices to expect.
After cleaning over 300 coins, i say that cleaning and collecting are different. On Ebay, you will pay 1-2 EUR per coin. If the lot is half clean, you will find some decent looking coins, in average condition, but very common ones. If the lot is really dirty, 30-40% will be total crap, hardly recognisable as coins. Most will be Fel Temp of common types and mints, Gloria Exercitus, Votas or other small and common AE3-4. You will find a few Gallienus antoniniani or other billon/bronze antoniniani of common type. Maybe a few rarer types and/or mints. It will be pure luck that the rarer coins will be also in good condition. My advise - #1 - buy lots for cleaning if you like the cleaning or to simply get experience with cleaning. Do not buy for finding nice coins to collect. #2 - try to attend a coin fair or look for half cleaned coins or lots at 3-4 eur/coin. You will know what you buy and will clean easily. Or simply buy nice coins. My last uncleaned acquisition, still in transit, is a R5 half cleaned AE3. Did not find an R5 within the 300 cleaned. Still paid less that for 15 uncleaned. Will still be cheap after cleaning
