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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;KDD, post: 4103026, member: 110611&quot;]Hello. Ancient coins are one of many hobbies I have tried starting up over the last year as I am going through a rough period. I am getting into coin collecting to connect myself with history, so am probably disinterested in most modern coinage. I am Australian, so there isn&#039;t much point in being a metal detectorist. Instead, I recently bought a bundle of over 100 coins on ebay. They haven&#039;t arrived yet, but am trying to do some research on the coins in advance and have spent 2 days trying to figure out who this emperor is. One distinctive element I used to try and track him is his square jaw. I am thinking I will go over some of the dirt gently with a blunted wooden pick once it arrives, but it looks potentially silver to me and I&#039;m not sure if that&#039;s safe?:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1066311[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I would especially love it if it was a usurper emperor since those solar crowns seem to have been popular for coins from the usurpers. And how much would the damage effect the value of the coin? It doesn&#039;t need to be worth a lot, even at $10 AUD I would be happy (I need to get my money back in terms of what I might have spent on the coins individually, not thinking about sale prices or selling).</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, I am curious what culture these symbols are on this coin. Looks like a curvy trident or Y in the ancient Greek (psi) and Roman alphabets (but the Roman version appears more like a W than a pitch fork with the edges slanting in) and it is stylized. It looks to me like it is clean and the inscriptions faded so I assume I can&#039;t do anything further with this coin to bring out any missing detail?:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1066312[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And lastly, I bought a rough condition Alexander the Great coin from around 323-317 BC if the seller is correct (so posthumous) and need advice on what should be done with it. Most of the details are visible. Clearly I wouldn&#039;t clean it without some experience first, but should I clean it at all or keep it the way it is? I notice these Alexander the Great coins are probably the most faked ancient coins, albeit the reverse isn&#039;t the widely faked reverse, so even in subpar condition it might help to authenticate it just leaving it as is?</p><p><br /></p><p>I know your FAQ here says not to clean ancient coins, but I am less interested in the monetary value over the visual appeal so what a buyer is interested in is less important to me. Of course I don&#039;t want to damage the coin, but I&#039;d like to see the real coin beneath the dirt as much as possible if -- with practice -- I can do no substantial harm to it. I will wait until it arrives before posting photos of it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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