 Recommend a collection :)

I can also say that Nerocoins is a good dealer. The coins on my recent thread are both from him.

 

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Take the time now to familiarize yourself with available resources. Before you clean any coin you should have some idea of what you have. Did you ask for your order to include Nerocoins.com cleaning instructions?

 

I did! I put that in the message to seller - hopefully it went through.

 

I also want to add an amazing dealer that I forgot about: Dirty Old Coins has probably the best prices one can find. I would recommend him as well.

 

Thanks, Noah!

 

I just ordered 11 dirty coins and 8 irregular dirty practice coins.

If anyone has any tips/ideas/suggestions on cleaning - pleeeease let me know!
And, if possible, explain it as if I'm a 6 year old

 

That just registered! I've been at it approximately half that long (always ancients, with a break or two in the middle) and sometimes forget there are people out who've done it twice as long! It sounds like a fascinating collection! The U.S. (I'm assuming) are pulled from circulation? Great looking info binder.

 

I don't want to hijack this thread. I do have a detailed accounting of how I managed to collect almost a complete 20th Century set of circulation grade coins. Here is a link to a Featured Article by me.
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/building-a-twentieth-century-circulation-collection.385921/

 

@Inspector43 I read your whole story. I am filled with jealousy and I enjoyed reading - thanks!

@lordmarcovan Thank you!

 

I use these picks from Wal-Mart and they've worked quite well. I hold them at an angle to the surface of the coin and gently go in circles to slowly work at the dirt. Though sometimes, you'll be able to get under a chip of dirt and chip away at some of it- that's very fun, but I would be careful not to scratch the metal. But before that even, you'll need to soak the coins in distilled water, for a few days to a week or a month, it depends on how long you can wait. I use mason jars, but any closed-off container works. MS-70 is optional but I like to use it to help differentiate between patina and dirt; if the coin is shiny you've probably dug too far. That's my process anyway, there are plenty of different ways to do it.

 

I started collecting when I was eight years of age. From then on I collected Canadian coins/ tokens. Once got a job working for a lawn maintenance company/ I saved up my pay to purchase modern Franklin Mint PROOF sets silver/ gold coins (cheapies) all I could afford As time went on I received auction catalogues from Stacks/ Paramount/ Tkalec/ Numismatic Fine Arts/ this opened up a wonderfull new world of classic gold coinage from 670BC onwards.
From then on I started my own business in lawncare/ and made lots of $$$ to build up my collection. Fast forward to present/ I now collect a wide variety of gold from earliest times to 1800s. Best advice/ always strive to buy coins in highest quality you can afford. Here is a tiny sample of my collection.

 

@panzerman

I like the way you've organized. I will definitely want to do something similar with the cards because each coin has sooooo much history to describe

This is really exciting!

 

THANKS!
I find that the more information you can provide/ the better. I made "stick on" labels for all my 400+ slabbed coins.

 

Welcome to the Ancients side! It's actually cheaper than collecting Americans, generally speaking.

It's very difficult to find true uncleaneds nowadays. Dirtyoldcoins only has a few categories which could be considered actually uncleaned. Around 2004, they really were uncleaned.

I'd recommend getting the final product from a dealer, but if uncleaned is what you want, then there are various how-to videos on youtube (I'd recommend the gentler methods). I was always dreadful at cleaning coins, so I'm not really good at more specific tips about that.

Knowing the history helps. I'd recommend listening to the Totalus Rankium podcasts. They rate all the Roman and Byzantine emperors. Justinian II won the distinction of most interesting Roman emperor, by the way. Podcasts are how I got back into collecting Byzantines. There are more scholarly podcasts out there but Totalus gives a pretty good overview of the reign in a fun way.

There are many good dealers out there. I got really great service from Victor Clark, by the way. I really like Savoca, David Connors, Tom Vossen, Aegean Numismatics, Forum, and others. Honorable mentions would be Incitatus Coins and Marc Breitsprecher. All of the above are quite nice and have lots of budget coins. I love the selection at London Ancient Coins and most of their transactions are problem-free, but I had a recent problem with less than stellar packaging and their customer service has never been that great.

Once you find your interest, buy the book. Pdf copies are available from Spink of most of David Sear's Roman Coins and their Values volumes. David Van Meter's book is also a good overview, available for around $35 if Forum still has it. If someone can dig up the link to the free version of ERIC, there's also that.

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/sitelinks.html

Valentinian has a nice site for beginners. It probably has a link to Doug Smith's old pages (which are very helpful) in there as well. Doug Smith's pages are hosted on Forum's site, unless something's changed.

Oh yeah, on youtube there's also Classical Numismatics. I'd recommend that channel. There's also Aaron Berk's podcasts. Half the podcast is generally an educational segment. His are also on youtube.

 

If I had a larger budget I'd be quite happy with collecting Sestertii of the 12 Caesars as my main specialty. However, they're quite expensive in high grade and many are tooled/worked over. Even a decrepit Nero Sestertius generally goes for over $200 now.

Coins of Gallienus are great starter coins. They're available in 'silver', AE, and silvered AE's. There's tremendous variety and they're generally not that expensive.

Or, there's 'silver'Antoninianii of the 3rd century Crisis emperors. Same conditions as above.

 

Other suggestions:
Coins of the emperors from 69-192. Generally affordable and there's a ton of variety, both imperial and provincial.

The large 40 nummia coins of Justinian I. Years 12-14 (the largest module) are relatively expensive ($150 for a decent one), but his coins are quite affordable. Even more so if one goes the pre-facing bust route. The side profile ones are relatively dirt cheap. Those are also usually decrepit.

Nummi of the Tetrarchy and later ones ofConstantine/Licinius.

Post-reform Antoninianii of Aurelian and Probus. A really nice one wil be $60, on a good day. $30 for halfway decent.

The youtube channel Classical Numismatics has a lot of relevant videos. He even did one recently about ancient coins which are still affordable today.

Go through dealer stock and find what appeals to you, and then go to the podcasts and start listening. Many of these emperors have fascinating stories. For instance, Valentinian I and his pet attack bears.

 

I'd also recommend quality over quantity. Find something you like and try to find an example that you'll not get tired of. I went through a period where I'd buy decrepit coins. That's fine for a great rarity, but those coins are going to be quickly forgotten.

Also, avoid bronze disease. It's much more trouble than it's worth.

I don't think the OP defined what 'affordable' is. I interpreted that as under $100.

Silver denarii of 193-235 are very affordable. Lots of variety.

If it's close, try to go to a coin show,or if you're near Chicago, go to Harlan J. Berk. They have pick bins. The larger coin shows also usually have pick bins.

 

As for "uncleaned" coins, I have long found that the best uncleaned coins are those that you buy at cheap auctions like savoca, concordia, bucefalus, etc. If you look at the online catalogs, you will probably find coins that you want to spend time cleaning, and that you decide are possible to clean and get a decent result from. Although more expensive than the typical 4th century "dirty dozen", you will likely get more value for your money too. But one has to buy at least a couple of coins to make it worth the shipping cost. Just before Christmas, I bought 5 bronze coins from Sicily for 55 euros. They all need cleaning, but at least 4 of them will come out good.

As for finding the "right" path with the collecting, my experience is that it takes time. I have allowed myself to shift between different areas of collecting the 20 years I've been at it. That has most of all been interesting and a learning experience. If I had been more goal oriented, my collection of one silver coin per Roman emperor would probably have been done by now. But what would have been the fun in being "done" with a collection? I think this is perhaps where ancient coin collectors differ from modern "set" collectors. We don't have any Dansco albums that tell us when we're done, so we just keep collecting and collecting

If you find Roman coins interesting, I think the 3rd century is a good place to start, as there are many coins in great condition availible for a decent price from that time. When you get used to grading and evaluating ancients from pictures, you can move on to more expensive eras, like the 1st and 2nd century AD. Roman Republican coins from the last century BC is also a great area with many lovely and interesting designs. I have concluded that I prefer coins with no head of state on them, after having collected heads of state for 20 years.