Attached are photos of the obverse and reverse of a batch of uncleaned ancients that I started on. I don't know which is which since they are very dirty. I can't see any detail on any of them.
Looks fun! My daughter has been asking for some dirty ancients to clean. Everything I've found so far look like straight slugs though. I hope you get some good ones out of that batch. Looking forward to seeing the results.
I'm sure she would like that. You need to look for premium uncleaned. They cost a little more, but you can usually get some decent coins if you take care in cleaning them. I have bought several times from nerocoins.com and have had good results. They are in Canada. The owner is very customer friendly and helpful.
I just bought 10 "premium uncleaned" from nobleroman. I haven't purchased from them in like 3 years so we will see how they are when they show up. Cleaning whatever we get will be a fun summer project for my daughter and I at least
Will do. I'm hoping that I get her started down the ancients path nice and early. She loves looking at coins with her older brother and me so I think it will be easy
I have my first one almost ready. In fact, I don't think there is any more I can do with it. I would like some feedback. The mint mark can be dot ASIS dot or dot Delta SIS dot. I chose the first dot ASIS dot. What do my friends think it is? Constantius II AE3 "Two Soldiers" Constantius II AD 324-361 AE3 Obv: FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOB C - Laureate bust right, cuirassed. Rev: GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS - Two soldiers looking in at each other and both holding a spear between them, two standards. Exe: (dot) (delta) SIS (dot) Siscia mint: AD 334-335 = RIC VII, 237 ("delta" = c3).
Typical LRB from an uncleaned batch. Not particularly valuable, but definitely genuine and historical. Better than most of the coins one finds in uncleaned batches nowadays. Rough surfaces, but good details. Really, this is a great way to get involved with ancient coins. You can start putting together a collection inexpensively, and you learn a lot. (It's how I got started.) You did a good job cleaning this up. I don't see any signs of harsh treatment or over-cleaning. Also, I believe that you have identified it correctly. FYI, when I ID a coin of an emperor that was minted while he was still caesar, I usually point this out explicitly because I'm so anal. I list the dates that he was emperor and then list the date(s) that the coin was minted, like this: AE3 of Constantius II (A.D, 337-361), as Caesar. Siscia mint, A.D. 334-335. etc.
Nice job cleaning!I haven’t posted yet on cleaning coins but I have some in the works from nobleroman. I was going to wait until they were all done but may start a thread sooner. Thank you for the motivation to do so with your thread!
I would like to show my process for identifying and presenting my ancients. Some of my coins are duplicates and there is no scheme or plan to collect any specific coins. I like to clean and ID them. The photos below show how I identify them and capture the information. I print a page for each that shows the reference copy that helped with ID. A description of the coin and a photo of my coin. Then they are put in 2X2's and into an album page. Each is numbered to link the page and the coin. Any suggestions on improvement are welcome.