Newbie & Looking For Reviews Of NRC Digger's Choice?

Hi everyone! I'm a newb from the states, been collecting ancients for about a year now and learning a lot. So i finally decided to actually join this forum so i can post and not just read

I collect all kinds of coins - world coins up to present, but the ancients are really my favorite. I've got a variety of Greek and Roman coins right now, and I'm trying to collect one of every ruler in the Roman coins. As far as the Greek coins go I'm interested in coins from Lesbos, but i only have 2 of those currently, and I'm also interested in coins with animals on them - of course turtles and owls especially. In terms of modern coins, I bought a bunch of bulk base metal coins from my LCS and have been having fun for months going through and trying to id them. My favorite recent coins are probably Japanese - from the 1800s to modern - i find their designs really beautiful.

Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself! And now for a question:

I was looking at the Digger's Choice coins on Noble Roman Coins site and wondered if anyone had tried those before? I read a couple of really detailed reviews about their "Premium Uncleaned" and "True Premium", but didn't find anything specifically about the Digger's Choice. I was curious about the quality and variety in those offerings if anyone has tried them.

 

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Welcome to CT @finny. Like you, it took me a while to participate and not just read. In 1 3/4 year I've never regretted it for a single second. Looking forward to see your coins !

 

...you sound like a person of my own collecting goals.....idk anything about 'diggers choice' but welcome to the forum finny..show us yer stuff...

 

Welcome! I became a member here a little more than six months ago, and it was one of my best decisions in quite some time. The people in the Ancients Forum are remarkably friendly, and eager to help others.

 

Welcome finny ,you learn alot around here and everyone is nice.

 

Welcome to CT

 

Thank you.

 

Welcome finny. I started off collecting by buying, cleaning and IDing uncleaned coins, but you seem more advanced and knowledgeable about ancients than I was when I began. Because of this, my advice is to stay away from uncleaned coins. I think you are likely to be disappointed in the quality and variety of the coins that you will receive.

A better route for you might be to buy large lots of coins from auction houses like CNG or Heritage:
https://auctions.cngcoins.com/auctions/4-QQIP4/electronic-auction-475?categories=4-75E1A&limit=96

https://www.ha.com/c/search-results...2+2088+4294945264+442&ic4=RemoveFilter-071515

 

Welcome to CT best of luck with your posts.

 

Enjoy the ride, @finny !

 

@finny, I got the "Premium Uncleaned Coins" from NRC, and my review is here:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/noble-roman-coins-premium-uncleaned-review.360569/

They're not the greatest, but a decent start to cleaning. You can end up with a FEW really good ones,and a LOT of roaches.

 

@finny, also, last time I checked NRC's website they said that they were out of stock of most of their coins due to their source in the Balkans being on lockdown or something.

 

Like gsimonel, I believe beginners would be better served buying cleaned coins. I would hope you might find groups from sellers more into beginner coins and cheaper than the two he mentioned.

For example, look at this lot that was sold by one of our member dealers last year. It is made up of 10 coins I consigned to his last sale that he did not consider worth listing separately. The realization was $40 CANADIAN (then about $30US) or $4CAN a coin. If you spent that same amount on uncleaned coins would you get ten better coins? There are many people out there selling ancient coins. Some won't talk to you unless you are spending $1000 on each coin. Deal with the ones who will.
https://www.biddr.com/auctions/amcoinscanada/browse?a=808&l=846889

I wonder if there are dealers here who would be happy to send you a group (unreturnable) of coins if you just sent them a note saying, "I'm new, make me happy" or whatever you think would get better results. I am not suggesting approvals or coins where you can return individuals any more than you would with uncleaned. You would get better coins for the total cost. Neither way is going to provide you a great rarity in great condition. I you were seeking ID practice, you might ask them to cover up the ID labels or number them and send them in a stack so you could check your ID's with theirs. Since you do not divulge where you are located, we don't know where to suggest you look. Postage across an ocean can be more than the value of some coins. I wish I could suggest you seek a local coin show but those are mostly on hold due to Covid.

Best wishes in your search and welcome to Coin Talk.

 

Thank you gsimonel - i've bid on HA a couple of times but haven't won any yet. I just signed up on CNG - but it looks like i have to provide references in order to bid there. Maybe i'll eventually bid on CNG, but it seems like a barrier to entry for now. Mostly i've purchased my ancients thus far from Forum (on their site and on ebay), and from Holding History (on ebay). Before covid i was buying modern and a couple of ancients from a local coin shop - Bellevue Rare Coins. I don't know how i'd go about getting references from them for CNG.

Thank you for these recommendations!

 

Unless you really LOVE cleaning I wouldn’t really go that route. It’s really tedious and you can get better coins and not spend 10 hours of back and eye strain on cleaning

 

Hi Doug, thank you for your response as well. I do like that lot and wow that seems like a great price for those! I'm in Seattle, WA, USA. I've mostly bought from Forum and from Holding History thus far. Probably because of the import restrictions I'll stick with sellers in the USA - i don't want to break any laws unwittingly with the ancient coins. Thank you for the suggestion and i'll take a look on biddr - i've never used it before. Also i'll check out your comments in the Forum forums

I have been enjoying trying to id my coins and bought all the David Sear Roman Coins & Their Values books, plus i search online - been using Forum sales, Wildwinds, and Tesorillo.

Mostly at this point i go for the already cleaned and id-ed coins, but thought the Digger's Choice looked promising as a way to have fun and fill in some of the more common spots for my collection. I know i won't get anything particularly rare or special from it. I'll probably pick some up and I'll be sure to write a review on here. I've found Forum to be a fantastic resource - both for using the fake seller's list and for buying coins. I love the id cards they include with the coins - the details are really great.

In going through my unknown coins from when i first started and bought some lots from someone selling off his collection, I've found some really neat coins. I'm not great at cleaning the coins and probably not great with the ids, but i'm really enjoying that aspect of it and starting to learn some of the common reverse types. Also I love the Romulus/Remus with the she-wolf - what a neat origin story! And most recently i id-ed an Etenna, Pisidia origin coin, where i learned the origin story of the Etenna people with the snake and the girl. That was really neat to learn about when trying to id the coin.

Thank you again!

 

LOL, thank you Earl! I'm not super good with the cleaning yet, but i do enjoy the "hunt" of trying to id the coins. It feels like solving a mystery - mainly using the internet. Though as others have mentioned now i could just buy cleaned lots and cover the ids and try to figure them out myself.

It was actually your reviews that I read - but I wondered if you had tried the Digger's Choice coins at all? They're listed at USD$9 each. I'll probably still order some of them and then I'll write up a review and drop some photos on here afterwards.

 

I haven’t tried the diggers choice, just the Premium Uncleaned. I believe the DC coins are rather larger, for one, and probably has some ants and AE2. Still not sure if it’s worth the price, but definitely worth a shot!

 

Hi finny, I also bought some of Noble Roman's premium uncleaned several months ago and will post my review on the forums in the next few days (been working away from home for a while so never got to finish cleaning them all).

Overall I would say I am happy. I don't know a lot about the value of the individual coins (I usually look around ebay after identifying them and take the average price with a grain of salt), but I think I had a better experience than @hotwheelsearl. I bought 20 coins and was sent 22. Almost all of them were identifiable, around 6 of them I would consider were really good, 6 were just good, 5 were okay and 5 were unidentifiable (to be honest, I typically consider anything identifiable to be okay).

I remember mentioning in my message in the checkout section that it was my first time buying from them as my other go-to dealer had stopped selling. This may have had an impact on what I received. Either way, I will most likely buy from them again.

In terms of cleaning, having a stereo microscope really helps; so if you find yourself getting sucked into the hobby of uncleaned coins a stereo microscope is life-changing. Cleaning ancients and identifying them is definitely a hobby that is rewarding in its own way. The amount of hours I spend cleaning the coins is no way worth whatever 'profit' I make from having bought uncleaned vs cleaned.

http://www.romanorum.com/docs/A Method for cleaning ancient coins. Romanorum.com.pdf - this is a good guide if you find yourself trying out uncleaned ancients.

Good luck with your coins!

 

That is a really well written paper on the subject pointing out what I consider the two big points. I do not clean coins well because I do not have the patience to be good at this. Coin cleaning is a separate hobby from coin collecting. I collect, study and photograph coins. Your hobby may differ.

This is an opinion that I really believe to be true. IF you actually read the 24 page document and examined the numerous coins shown in the appendix without ever thinking about how long it was, you might have a furure as a coin cleaner. If, however, you skimmed and skipped demonstrating your finest speed reading skills, I suggest you join me in collecting coins cleaned by others that you find attractive just as they are.