I am interested in starting a small ancients collection. There's a few of your guys that have some really nice ancients and I'm jealous. Where is the best place to get uncleaned ancients? Anyone on ebay?
You get what you pay for. "Really nice ancients" usually do not come from uncleaned lots. What is there about ancients that interests you? Typically, a collector of ancients has some affinity or appreciation for some time or place. If you are an American who understands the checks and balances in the Constitution, you might prefer the coins of the Roman Republic, just for instance. The uncleaned coins -- and uncleaned does not mean "unsearched" or "unidentified" -- tend to be from 350 AD or so, about 400 years after the Republic. "Ancients" run from 600 BC to 500 AD on three continents. You have Greeks, and Romans and Celts and Jews and Persians, and others as well. If you had a new interest in "coins" and wanted to own "just one" what would you prefer? A Mercury Dime? A Bust Half? One of the new Marine Corps Commemoratives? It is kind of like the mathematical paradox of Infinity that the area of "ancients" is as large as the area of "coins." My personal recommendation is to start with reading ... at least websites, if not books. Try here for current sales: VCOINS or here for historical archives: WILDWINDS The leading magazine for this is The Celator (The Celator) which you can read about here: (review of The Celator) As convenient as these all are, the real knowledge is hidden in books.
I noticed Mike posted a link into VCoins. I am only fairly warning you that it is seriously addictive for ancient collectors, and can be quite detrimental to your funds and other collecting interests. I got addicted to VCoins, and passionately collect coins of Syracuse Sicily as a result.
Then you spend way too much on coins and get in a hell of a lot of trouble with your wife. Just like me and my VCoins addiction.
There are so many different ancient coins, I just think it would be cool to clean up some and figure out what they are. Bonedigger has a few decent uncleaned ones he got, I am not exactly looking for top quality. I just think it would be a cool project to clean some up, identify them and display. Buying cleaned ones kind of takes all the fun out of it.
