I bought an uncleaned lot of junk Roman coins. It cost $14 and I got 11 coins (12 advertised) As a bonus the seller also included some old baseball cards, two acid-dates Buffalo nickels (1916 and 1923), and a couple bits of uncut sapphire stones. Three of the coins are about as cleaned as I can get them. 1. The largest coin is broken in two places and worn nearly slick. No legends or anything else is really visible. 2. Dime sized coin has a portrait that is all but gone. Reverse at least has a decent soldier guy with letters that probably make sense to somebody. 3. Half-dime sized with nearly nothing visible. Portrait only visible from the right angle. Reverse seems to have a tripod of some sort but it’s simply not clear enough.
Top looks like Hadrian to me. 2nd - I can't tell the obverse but the reverse looks like an emperor dragging a captive. 3rd - I believe the reverse is 2 soldiers holding spears with military standards between them. For $14, you can find better uncleaned coins. Granted, it's always a crap-shoot but I've had better luck for less money.
I certainly struck out this time. I remember a few years ago I got an uncleaned lot. $13 for 26 coins. 1 coin I traded for a $13 meal, so I broke even with just 1!
For the first one I see SC on the reverse, a pretty common reverse type but maybe you can use it to help attribute a period of time. Second I agree with emperor dragging captive. A later roman bronze. Unsure on the third. You've done better than I have with the uncleaned coins I bought, quite frankly, I don't know how to clean them lol. I would try to handle the only 11 coins. I think maybe the seller would just like to know and they can fix it.
Thank you! Just a questions - what does SC mean? In that vein, what does AE mean? I’ve had a difficult time finding definitions for the acronyms, although I see plenty of them used to describe ancient coins
So far my cleaning technique has been: 1. Soak in distilled water, changing it every day. It’s been over a week 2. During every change, attack with mechanical tools. I’ve used a popsicle stick, wooden toothpick, brass brush, toothbrush, and screwdriver. I try to use the screwdriver to chip off major areas of encrustations and use the toothbrush and brass brush to remove the rest. Toothpick good for getting stuff out of smaller areas. It takes a lot of time and isn’t monetarily worth it, especially when it’s near impossible to positively identify the coins. Plus the coins are usually not worth much anyways. I mean, for $14 I could have purchased 2 or 3 nice examples of clear, attributable ancient coins that I wouldn’t have to spend hours working on. But where’s the fun in that As for the only 11 coins, I guess I forgave it since I got some extra goodies.
SC is found on many Roman bronze coins and stands for Senatus Consulto (By the authority of the Senate). During the Empire, the Senate theoretically controlled the bronze coinage while the emperor controlled the silver and gold, and the SC on bronzes was a reminder of this fact. AE is a modern collectors' abbreviation for bronze or copper (as the material of a coin) and comes from the Latin "aes" (copper). Related terms are AR (silver, argentum) and AV (gold, aurum).
Just to be irritatingly pedantic, the above is correct for imperial bronze issues. But SC also appears on provincial issues from Antioch of the same time period. I don't think there is a clear consensus of what it stands for on these.
These coins are very worn and also very much examples of what one finds in "uncleaned" hoards. I used to buy them from the UK but the vendor went out of business. One lot included 278 coins of which about half could be attributed. Only about 20 were in a condition which would attract a buyer. Some of the rulers included Licinius I, Constantine, Constantine II, Constans, Constantius II (most frequent) and Valentianian. For the most part I don't buy uncleans anymore. My hoard cost $320 and like I said included 20 coins in marketable/collectible condition. Lots of slugs and culls. While it can be fun to attribute them you should not consider them a valuable investment. It's better to buy a single coin in excellent condition rather than these examples. At the end of the day you get what you pay for, just like most things in life.
I would say this is open to discussion, especially for someone just starting out. I started out with uncleaned coins, and I don't regret it. As a beginner, I knew next to nothing about ancient coins, so I learned a lot by trying to attribute the coins I cleaned. My initial investment was very low, and the chances of being fooled by fakes was even lower. True, I eventually graduated to nicer, more expensive coins, but I think cleaning and attributing uncleaned coins can be a great introduction to the hobby.
