New to ancient coin collecting

The Indian coin may actually be 19th century, believe it or not:

https://coinswalalala.blogspot.com/2013/11/bhonsala-rughuji-iii-1-paisa-ad-1818-56.html

By the way, I have seen the trishula symbol curve to one side at the bottom but not extend as far.

In fact, I'm starting to doubt it is Islamic at all. It also makes sense of how it appeared in Britain to a metal detectoralist given India was a colony of Britain. Someone who served Britain inside India may have brought it back with him.

So value wise, it seems like it is worth almost nothing. But historically, it does allow me to at least conceptualize what regions of India were like pre-colonization in terms of tribalism.

 

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I don't want to take it out of the pouch right now. Kind of anxious about putting my hands on it and I was in a rush anyway. Don't know when I'll find the time to take better pictures and learn how to take extreme close ups.

Pictures of my Alexander the Great:



As you can see, the lion headress comes out better depending on the lighting and angle.

Really bad quality pictures, but anyway. I used my fake 48 megapixel setting on my Redmi Note 7. Probably significant blur also introduced by the sleeve.





The pictures don't tell the story. The coin looks like it is covered in a layer of dirt. In person, it looks like a coin. I suppose reflections help. Should take a video and turn it into a animated gif?

With this seller I also bought these for $6 AUD each:



The seller also gave this as a bonus (probably about 11mm in size). I'm very curious what it is:




My first coin was this (same camera, came out way better?):

 

My dog Bucephalus Alexandria 30+ years ago...

(Bucy). On a cason at Stones River Battlefield.




Makedon Alexander III 336-323 BC AE 16 4-1g Salamis-Cyprus mint Herakles club bow quiver SA Price 3143


Makedon Alexander III 336-323 BC AE 16 Eagle Tbolt Crescent


Makedon Alexander III 336-323 BC AE 19 Quiver Club


Makedon Alexander III 336-323 BC AE 18 Bow Case Club


Makedon Alexander III 336-323 BC AE 17 Quiver Club

 

But, I think this Guy was Greater...

Big fan of those Philip II Bronzes:

Right-Left

Right-Right


Left-Right


Left-Left

 

Thanks for the pet pic and tribute to yours, and not making me feel all alone with my unconventional humor.

The seller lists the coin as the Price 2110 variation:

http://numismatics.org/pella/id/price.2110

I strongly suspect some of the blur in my photos is me taking the picture up really close and it not focusing well. At some point I'll be revisiting.

One interesting distinction between this coin and all the others is that there is a significant inwards curvature to the coin. The head side is bulging out.

3 other coins arrived on Friday as well. I just sorted through cheap coins that were going off and bought them, but 2 of the 3 were not good buys. But I think the 3rd made up for it.

I bought this Augustus era quadrans for $2 USD:



Just because it was 'cheap' and I wanted to push back the date of my earliest coin (the other being a Claudius). I might try and clean this at some stage. The seller didn't list the size, but it is significantly smaller than the Claudius quadrans.

My other blunder was this for $3 USD (single faced coin):


I just liked the 1720 showing on the coins face. But the seller brightened the picture or his camera did because that dirt in the middle is significantly black and makes detail hard to see. It is also a very tiny coin plus it has no historical significance that I know of. I guess I should check to see if anything was happening in 1720 in Austria.

However, this final item more than made up for it IMO (a 1799 France First Republic coin, I won it for $4.25 USD):




I was expecting a coin with significant wear, but to my eyes it doesn't resemble that at all? Maybe the seller has brightened the picture again and it is somehow showing much more wear than my eyes can make out, but I'm just not seeing it? It looks like a good coin? I don't see any wear to any of the print. I don't see any chips to the detail anywhere. I'll have to take a picture of just how good this coin really looks, because that picture is not representative at all. I am struggling to imagine how it can even be the same coin (in a good way)?

 

Hi everyone, I'm new to ancient coins and new here as well.
I bought a huge lot of uncleaned coins about 15 years ago, and thought it might be fun, but my mistake is i bought too many and don't really know where to start. Over the years i've been soaking some in distilled water from time to time, but when it comes to attributing them, the task is daunting. My fear is that I was swindled and they're mostly fakes. I'll post some pics when i can get the time to do so, but would appreciate any tips to manage about 1000-1500 coins.
Thanks,
Al

 

Welcome to CT Ancients. I dunno, 1000-1500 coins are a lot to go through. Where did you buy them? And, just for kicks, about how much did you pay? The reason I ask is that of course the more you pay the more likely you will get better coins. I have not had any luck with "unclean" lots. Mostly culls. But then again I never spent a lot either. You can bet though that those coins were gone thru with a fine tooth comb before they were sold as "unclean".

Without knowing more, I would say the vast majority of the coins you purchased will be authentic, but running from poor quality to culls. I hope I am wrong (about the condition not the authenticity).

 

If you have 1000 to 1500 coins, you should do a quick sort first. I would make a sort like this:

• separate the coins, I assume some are fused together
• sort by size / weight - I would work on the big ones first
• sort by coins that have visible features - head, horse, someone standing, etc.
• work on coins that have legends you can read, if any
• I assume most will be LRBs (late Roman bronzes). Do a search here for LRB to see some.
• When you have a cleaned coin with features and legend, post a picture here. Make sure the pic is focus and large enough to see.

You have a large chore. If you spend only 10 minutes per coin (and I don't see how you can attribute them in less time), you have 20+ 8 hour work days ahead of you.
Have fun.
FYI - I have spent weeks writing up a coin that was attributed by professional coin dealers.

 

I'll make a different suggestion. Set that huge lot aside and forget it. Begin anew with nicer coins. If you don't want to buy coins one-at-a-time, many large auctions have individual lots with 20 or 50 or 100 reasonably nice late Roman bronzes that can be easily attributed by experts and which have enough good details for you to be able to learn how to read and decipher coin legends. Then, when you are done, you will have some reasonable coins you can either be happy to own or pass along--attributed--to others who might be interested (high school history classes, etc.).

Would you rather spend many frustrating hours on a thankless task, or many happy hours on a task with benefits? Don't let 1000 lousy coins keep you from enjoying our great hobby! It is "Water under the bridge." Or, as an economist would say, a "sunk cost."

 

I would start with rrdenarius' third step. I suspect you could cut the group down to the 100 best and lose nothing by putting the rest in a jar. After that take a photo of the ten best (both sides) and post it here. We will be able to suggest the next step when we see the ten. You might hear the suggestion to do a second ten or, perhaps, to put the bunch in the jar and seal it shut.

Exactly! Lots like these are like lottery tickets. You have a one in a million chance of getting a winner. My sorting out ten suggestion won't take long and will tell what we need to know. Chances are at least 99 out of 100 that Valentinian is correct and the only answer is "Water under the bridge."

 

Still not great pictures of the Alexander the Great, but it shows more detail than the sellers pictures including potential damage to the patina from over-cleaning? Possible warning sign to not mess with it further.






The Claudius quandrans is still my favourite aesthetically:





This was my France First Republic 1799 coin and the amount of detail my camera picked up on this was amazing compared to my naked eye. It looks fairly decent to my naked eye but this reveals some issues. I need to get a magnifying glass at some point, probably before doing anything with any coin. I can't see how this could possibly be the same coin the seller showed. Also, the reverse is upside down. Maybe other coins I have do the same, I just didn't notice. But I noticed here and rather than think I had some kind of valuable defect, I thought it might be a fake. Looking it up though this is the way coins used to be minted and sometimes still are. I also perceived this coin might be bent a tiny fraction? My pics are first contrasted with the sellers:






I did see slightly earlier French coins were worth $3 USD at their lower condition. I'm curious what condition coin did I end up getting?

Not coin related, but I also started up my fossil collection, including a 3.5" Spinosaurus tooth and a 350 million year old 4-5" Orthoceros fossil. Maybe I should go out and pick a rock and draw a face on it. Pet rocks sound like they average around 1.3 billion years of age and are free, unless you buy them. :/ I couldn't think of a more inane thing, I might ebay it.

 

As you might have predicted, the coins arrived and the experience was below even my low expectations. It seemed like I was taking out 10mm size coin after coin. Some I think may even be smaller than that. The larger ones were probably 17mm. It is my fault not the sellers and I realized it afterwards that I should have inquired what size the majority of the coins were. Still, a good seller would probably mention a size without being asked as part of the item description and I'm not sure I will leave any kind of feedback. It just didn't occur to me as I am new to the hobby.

I don't know if it's something with my laptops monitor, but those coins in the OP I thought had a silver tone to them. I am no gauge on precious metals, so after being told they were bronze I assumed they were silvered bronze. They didn't have the soft to the eye texture of being silver. But it appears to be either photo manipulation or a trick of light. The coin is a pretty dark bronze. It has become apparent to me that the coins you buy seldom look like they are depicted as in person like someone is tweaking the brightness settings.

I don't know how else to explain how a coin looks like this on ebay [not the same listing; will have to use square brackets due to keyboard issues]:



But looks like this in person:



I am partially red/green colour blind, but I see two very different looking coins. And I much prefer the one I got. It is clear they're the same coin, but to me on my monitor it looks like someone has tweaked the visuals.

The first coin in the OP is a very dark bronze, and it sorts of looks like his face is smushed too which I didn't get in the photo? The back detail is so dark I couldn't make out anything about it.

The Indian coin shows more symbols on the back, but has a similar place of details that are either worn out or were never originally there. So there is a back to it, which is good. But it's fairly small. I'd be surprised if it was 17mm, probably 14mm.

Furthermore, I had two bundles to choose from. One was fully crusted uncleaned and one showed details and looked like it'd be minimal effort. I chose the minimal effort one and I think there is little that can be done with cleaning barring electrolysis, even if that is a heresy. There are a few that are crusted.

A number of coins looked like they may be around the 10mm range and they are VERY thick for their size. I couldn't make out details on them. A number of coins were a thin sheet which seems like what I have seen from medieval coins, but the medieval coins I have seen looked bigger than these. Some of these sheets of metal are bent and need straightening out.

I would be happy if the 10mm coins were very ancient, ancient Greek. But being as they were found in Britain, probably little chance in that.

Also, many of the 17mm coins looked like they may have been the same coin. I seemed to encounter backs that looked possibly like two soldiers with pole arms by their sides a lot on first glance?

So yeah, it was a waste of money. I doubt fully restored any of these coins would be worth anywhere near the $10 AUD mark. But it won't discourage me. Everything is a lesson.

I am also learning the lesson about fossils. While there are many legitimate fossils inexpensive on ebay, some of even the legit ones are composites of different teeth, especially to lengthen them and boast of bigger sizes. I see no signs of mine being a composite and I have an active inquiry on a fossil forum and they seem to have no issue with my fossil, but one I considered at first was very much patched together. The seller also didn't measure it correctly, it is likely 3.8" or 3.9". I still need to show them the upper side and under side before I get the 'it's authentic' tick of approval from these guys. If you get into fossils, you should also seek out a fossil forum before spending any kind of sizable money. The Spinosaurus tooth cost me $76.50 AUD / $51.10 USD.

 

I am actually feeling better on day #2. Sifted through some of the coins that caught my attention. The smallest I think was around 6mm in size, round too so not chipped/missing edges. The most interesting one to me is 8mm in size but is very dense. I'm really curious to find out what that is. A lot of the small ones are fairly round, so if only I can see their faces they might have some basic worth.

When I handle them with gloves, tonnes of rust comes off them. I would be inclined to put the whole lot of coins through distilled water and then baking them on low in the oven for 30 minutes, but I need to research that a bit first and didn't try it this morning. I am confident there are a number of medieval coins here. Some of the coins without eyeloop at hand just look like an alphabet soup to me? I can't make out images.

 

This is what was advertised:



This is what I got:



The shade is not altering anything. They are as black as they look.

I am curious to know why pictures from coin sellers look so different from what you actually get.

 

On the plus side, the seller said 115 coins. There are 143 coins.

I was going to start something this morning, now it is delayed for who knows how long. I am really angry because my cat was put down without my authority because his legs allegedly splayed apart once and she heard this was the end. No consulting me. I had spoken to her about acting impulsively like this. We had the cat for 17 years and he was about 18 years old. He was an adopted stray. And I have never been more close to a cat before in my life. He was my only cat, as he scared away other strays we tried to take in. I'm too sad to do anything...

A couple of years ago, my doctors wanted me to check into a hospital after filling me with ventolin due to a flus effects on my asthma. The coronavirus will probably get me, as I have such issues with asthma and my heart rate is 130 bpm at rest if I do regular things. If I just lay about the house, my resting rate is 100 bpm. If I walk about to get from A to B like a regular person, my heart rate sticks at around 130 even an hour after walking. So I fall into the demographic that makes up the bulk of the fatalities. I am really reluctant to get another cat with an uncertain future, but I need one for my sanity so I don't know.

This picture was taken before I took the picture of the coins, I don't know how long ago but it was among the most recent pictures I took of him:

 

The full story was he had hyperthroidism which was under control, the vets said his heart was remarkably weak and we had vet bills coming up that might be difficult to stomach. The problem I have with all that is that I would have looked up the legs splaying apart thing and urged caution especially as neither her nor I saw it with our own eyes [he might have been awoken from sleep], over the heart thing I'd rathered he'd die at home naturally when the time came and if it came to getting blood tests to increase his medicine then I would just say don't get it, he was coping well with the dosage he was getting. I would have liked to have had some say over this impulsive action, some warning. She wanted to put him down a year ago over his hyperthyroidism, but I told her you don't kill a friend for so long impuslively like that! I went over the protocol, I am tired of being ignored. I was to be consulted. I told her when it was the end, we would know it. It wasn't the end yet. He was not in pain. I need to get skilled at everything so I can get the hell away from this madness. I have never been more attached to a pet than I had been to that cat.

I need to become a jack of all trades. Cleaning coins and potentially learning how to profit from the hobby is one thing that I need to learn, even if I don't get to use it. I need to do a bit of everything, that's the way it feels.

 

Very sorry about your cat. Who is "she"?

 

I don't like posting my pet names online, I feel stupid for naming them what I did. But it was based on a foreign word meaning Hurricane. Oh whatever, I called him Uri after the Italian word Uragano. I was a Nino Rota enthusiast at the time and had just discovered the score for the 1979 movie Hurricane. It sounds like a silly Russian or Israeli name, or an abbreviation for urine. I don't know, I just called him cat.

We found him after losing my late grandfathers cat who was always wild and hard to control. He just disappeared. Soon after, a cat that had the same patterns as him appeared outside my window. He was malnourished and weak and allowed me to pick him up because he virtually couldn't run or fight back. I pet him at the food bowl then showed him my bedroom. He went crazy and demanded out. I had to let him go. Several hours later, he came into the house voluntarily and meowed like mad at my bedroom door. It was crazy the contrast: him jumping up and smashing everything over to wanting desperate to come back in. From that moment, he became our cat. He was an extremely sweet animal.

 

Just trying to make sure I understand what you're saying. "She" seems to be the person who had the cat put to sleep. Your mother? I don't know how old you are, but perhaps you should think about moving out if that's your situation. Not that any of this has anything to do with ancient coins!

 

'She' is someone I share the house with. I have specific circumstances that are none of your business [including disability]. But it should be noted I am paying my way, not free loading. Not only am I paying my way, I am paying for an abusive prick who happens to live here who is free loading. 'She' is not the focus of this issue. And I am trying to get away from this madness so she can deal with the abusive drunken prick all by herself, in case I didn't make that clear. I need a lot more money to get out of this hellhole, which is tied with my need to find expertise and avenues of raising revenue [eg. ancient coin collecting, if you're accusing me of being off-topic]. If I don't volunteer private stuff, do not ask!