Hello all. I'm new to the hobby and recently came into a collection. I was hoping some kind folks might be able to help me ID some of these ancients that aren't labeled, or I couldn't find yet online? Many thanks in advance! Unknown Ancient #1 Unknown Ancient #2 Unknown Ancients (3) #3 Unknown Ancients (3) #4 Unknown Ancient #5
It works, but many old-timers on here don't like to follow links. I'm not so good, you want the best help you can get.
IMO you may get more replies if you made a new post every day or two, limiting each post to 1 or 2 coins at a time. I don't collect ancients so other than the advice about posting, I can't help you.
Most people here don't like doing mass IDs, especially if you've made zero effort on your part to start with. That being said, I'm feeling generous. 1,2. Tiberius 3. Greek 4. Constantine I AE Follis. Soli Invicto Comiti. 5. Greek, possibly counterfeit. 6, 7, 8. Greek, tough to tell with those pics. 9. Possible Hadrian, but the blue gunk on the face makes it hard to tell.
I appreciate it. To be fair, as I mentioned these are the ones I couldn't find. I have been ID'ing and cataloging this collection for over a month and am a few hundred coins in already. Thank you for the help!
A lot of these coins were in very old plastic containers sitting on a foam pad, I think from the 50s or 60s and they dissolved into the foam. Those sides are pretty nasty from that stuff. I've taken them out but I'm not sure what, if anything, I should do to them. For now I'm just moving everything into flip cards and labeling everything.
For Coin #9, please toss it into hardware store acetone. (NOT nail polish remover). Acetone will NOT harm the metal in any way, and will easily dissolve away any organic materials, including PVC and other gunk from old-school plastic holders. Please leave the coin in a shotglass of acetone overnight (cover it up with a metal or porcelain lid). This will remove the gunk. This coin could be pretty nice, it's just hard to tell what it is with that blue stuff. That acetone will be really useful for any coins in that collection if they: 1. Feel sticky at all 2. Have strange colors 3. Have visible adhesive or gunk Please post the coin when youre done with the acetone soak!
Also, what does the rest of the display for the Tiberius (#1,2) coins look like? Tiberius denarii are relatively expensive and very often faked. The display may help us figure out if its fake or not. The #5 (greek) silver is very likely fake, which means that that there is the possibility that others in the collection might be counterfeit.
#5 is likely a denarius of Hadrian, but as @hotwheelsearl mentioned, the acetone would clean up the obverse to identify with certainty. It doesn't necessarily look fake to me. I would agree that #1,2 are tribute pennies of Tiberius. They are relatively common but expensive in good grade and sought after by collectors, as they are commonly known as the tribute penny from the bible. If they're from the 50s and 60s, they may not be fake. They look ok to me, but would need to see better resolution pics. #3, the center coin is a follis of Constantine 1. The greek silver coin on the right is from Rhodes. Not sure about the bronze on the left.
Two of the Greek bronzes are from Sicyon, I think: https://www.google.no/search?q=sicy...666&biw=1024&client=safari&prmd=imnv&hl=nb-no At least one of the small Greek silver coins is from Rhodes: http://wildwinds.com/coins/greece/rhodes/t.html
Your Constantine looks fine. It is one of these. I can’t tell the mint mark, but it’s Ticinum because the scarce variant cross in the left reverse field was struck only at Ticinum.