Great job. I have a question. Unless you dug these or bought them directly from the diggers, why would anyone sell them covered with mud (?).
Some dealers sell uncleaned coins because there is a whole branch of the hobby that loves cleaning coins (not me). And there's no lack of uncleaned Late Roman Bronzes - they churned out countless millions of coins that are constantly being unearthed, as galba68 demonstrates. But uncleaned does not mean unidentified. You can be sure that any lot of "uncleaned" coins has been cleaned just enough to cherrypick any rarities. No dealer in his right mind would sell you a coin so completely covered in dirt that it was unidentifiable.
That is the only way I will buy them. My fun is in cleaning and identifying. I have done over 100 in the last couple of years.
This one is great. It still has a lot of the silver wash on it. That is very hard to maintain when cleaning. Very good job.
Are you pulling my leg? I always considered you to be very serious. PS I've seen lots as this for sale on Ebay. If it were me I'd cover all my stuff with something. And the coin with the green patina would be sold as the "after."
I think the OP is legit. Check out his posts. In my email today, I had a link to a seller in Europe who sells the "uncleaned" coins. One of his negative ratings claimed that he cleaned them just enough to cherrypick and then dipped them in mud to claim they were "uncleaned". His response was that the coins could always be returned.
@galba68 i agree with @Kentucky and would also like to know the most valuable coin you have found so far. Thanks in advance
A key factor with uncleaned coins is the experience of deciding which coins have potential for futher cleaning and which not..I do not have patience to clean them and I give coins, that I think can be sold nicely, to my friend for cleaning..But, it cost! I post today A.Pius dupondius after cleaning..Cleaning that coin cost me 35$.. If that coin had some problems, bronze disease, etc etc, I wouldn't be able to sell it for even 5$..But, I think I made a good decision by putting the coin "under microscope".. Anyone, who has patience, a calm hand and good eyes, can save himself time and money..
Good question, but I was asking this of @Inspector43 to see what he has found from his lots of purchased uncleaned coins...dang, I wish I could find some stuff like @galba68 finds...maybe @paddyman98 could go visit him on vacation