Uncleaned Ancient Coins

Don't get me wrong...I understand it's not something one could just jump into and be a natural at. I respect the skill and mindset it must take to be successful at it. Ill give that manual a look and see if Amazon will let me browse much before buying. I'd hate to spend a bunch of money then realize it's not for me, but that's how it goes sometimes. I work on electronic systems that require MANY tedious electrical terminations and I pride myself in making it look like a robot did the work. I enjoy nonchalantly opening my panels and continuing the conversation with whoever and seeing the look on their face while they stare at all the wires lol.

 

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I think cleaning ancient coins could be fun, if the coins have some details left to be revealed. Maybe I just bought bad lots but it wasn't fun at all.

There are a few people on this board who are very adept at cleaning coins. They're also very adept at understanding which "uncleaned" lots are worth the time.

 

Uh, from all that, I would have to just simply say 'good luck'. One can waste (spend) their money any way in which they wish. Its a free country.

 

oh..poque is it?!? (poke polk etc yeah)

 

I have not bought uncleaned coins for over 12 years. Back when I was buying them, they were found in abundance and cheap. If you bought from a reliable source you were almost guaranteed that the combined value of individual coins you cleaned would well exceed what you paid for the coins. At least that was my experience and proven because I sold most of them! My first sestertius was from an uncleaned lot.

I remember uncleaned Greek coins were my first foray into bronze coinage. What they lacked in grade, they more than made up for in diversity. I learned a lot about researching and attributing coins from uncleaned Greek coins.

I still have uncleaned coins from back then. Large Ae As /Dupondii sized early Roman Imperial coins. I recently began cleaning them. Some have cleaned up nicely and others will require more work but all are worth more than the $4-5 per coin I originally paid. Some will be worth $50-$100.

Today, there does not appear to be the same level of supply and from accounts I have read on the internet, they are not the same degree of quality. Theories I have read range from sources drying up, through to tightening of laws in the countries they are found, making it hard to ethically source them.

Very recently, I was offered a few kilograms of uncleaned coins but on inspecting the photos I did not proceed with the purchase as was not satisfied with the quality.

Some people enjoy uncleaned coins because it is like buying a lottery ticket - you are hoping to discover an ultra rare coin. That is never an economical approach because the odds are stacked against you given the number of hands the coins have passed through before offered to you as the end customer. For me, I enjoy it for the cleaning process and the thrill of researching and attributing a 'new to market' coin. There is a different feel to ownership of a coin when you are responsible from removing it from its dirt encrusted tomb and bringing it into the 'coin collecting world'.

Peter

 

Indeed, as this is an open forum and any comment should be expected as anyone can just post, well, whatever is on their mind. Sometimes it's helpful and sometimes it's not. I'm learning that more often than not it is helpful, but then there is that time where it's not.

 

I used to buy uncleaneds in the mid-2000s. The principal benefit is that I got a lot of different but common representative coins from 3rd-4th c emperors. I got a good education about reverse types and rulers.

I think the quality of uncleaneds has deteriorated significantly since then. If I were you, I'd buy a modest lot of 20-25 coins and see if I enjoyed the process of cleaning and attributing before I'd drop several hundred dollars on a large lot.

A safer compromise is that some Vcoins retailers offer large lots with good price per coin ratios and coins you can actually view before buying. But then you lose the flea market thrill of finding the rarity or super bargain. But I remain deeply skeptical that uncleaneds lots today contain many of these.

 

The Indiana Jones factor is important. Just getting back into the hobby it was great to have so many attributable coins for me. The good thing for me is that I
have had my fill of LRB coins, I've basically completed the 4th century and half of the fifth century from the hoards. So now I can pick and choose which to buy. In the last week I have added Julian and Theodosius the Great coins via auction and have almost finished with the 4th century rulers. Need Severus II and Maxentius, though, plus Eugenius, Vetranio, and Magnus Maximus.

 

@greekandromancoins thats where I'm at now. The thrill of "planting my flag" as the one who brought a piece of history back from the shadows. I'll have to do some research/googling and see what I can find as far as sources. @LaCointessa posted earlier with something that had never crossed my mind, and you just brought up again...legality and ethics with sources. Are there "pirates" for my lack of better term that poach historical sites for coins and sell them? I don't want to be supporting that kind of thing so I want to be careful who I give my money to. Im not sure if it's ok to post where to buy on here, but would anyone be willing to share where I could go to buy a few pices to start?

 

Well, it seems you have made up your mind (as far as I can tell). I hope you are happy with your coins. But, when you come to me with that .000001 cent coin and I tell you it has no value......please dont tell me I am a monster. The coin had no value before, it has none now. I told you before.....I warned you and gave you advice.....

But then is occurs to me, this maybe one of those advertising scams.

 

@ancient coin hunter Please excuse as I'm very new to this... LRB?
And it sounds like it would be a fun way to start building a set. Knowing that I brought most of my collection back to life would be big bonus points for me. Bragging rights are always fun too.

 

LRB = late roman bronze, mostly what you get with the uncleaned hoards.

 

Noted, I will tell you now that you're not a monster. You're probably a really nice guy with a lot of helpful knowledge. I'm sorry that I don't have your eye for catching scams, but if you could enlighten me on how this could be I won't be sad when you don't tell me what my coins are worth. Fair trade? I mean, I don't have my PSP, but I have some experience with, and make good money, securing things. Perpetual education helps keep that true.

 

Welp I did it. I found a site (ODC) and ordered a couple coins from eras and areas I'm interested in to get started. Also ordered the crayon a andre set and a nylon gun cleaning brush. I'm pretty excited to get into this and can't wait for the packages to arrive!
Thanks for the input all. I've heard the warnings and decided to proceed, but I'll at least clean these 7 coins and go from there.

 

My experience, same as others, is that the quality of uncleaned ancient coins has diminished and there's rarely anything of interest or value underneath the dirt. It wasn't always so. About 10 years ago, prices were better, there was abundance and variety. My first uncleaned coins were Seleucids, Nabateans and Judeans. For about $100, I received about 100 coins. Most were attributable after cleaning. There wasn't anything particularly rare to be found, but I increased the value of the coins by maybe 5-10x after patient cleaning. That said, it wasn't a great money maker - my "wage" per hour would have only been a few bucks considering how time consuming the project is!

 

I have never seen the allure of uncleaned lots. I would rather spend my money on coins I can identify and that I choose as part of my collection. I would much rather have one silver denarius that fills a collecting need than a bunch of LRBs I have no real use for. I am not disparaging any collecting focus but I only have 1 LRB and I very much doubt I will add any more. It is just not my area of interest. Why would I want to buy kilos of them, especially when they are uncleaned? I have much better ways of spending my time.

 

I guess it may take me cleaning a few before I get to the point of deciding not to do it. As far as comparison goes I really have nothing to compare it to so starting now makes no difference in my eyes. I'm. It wanting something specific while cleaning the coin I want to acquire the skill of cleaning it, doing research on what I found and learning something from the experience. I hear you that it was better pickins a few years ago, but I'm still going to give it a shot. I figured picking one of a couple types, and five of another, would be a decent start. I didn't want to buy a lot and end up with multiples, so worst case, I may have 5 of the same medieval coin. Oh well, I've wasted my money and time on worse. And as far as time goes, as long as you are actually doing what you could that's better than something you'd rather not, good for you. Most people spend 8+ hours a day doing something they'd rather not or, even worse, something that doesn't matter. I enjoy learning and a challenge. I also enjoy an ice cream cone every once in a while. An ice cream cone can bring momentary pleasure and then it's gone. Does that make it a horrible investment? I say no. At least with cleaning a coin it's still there when the funs been had and if the most I lost was $12...hm. Again, I've spent way more on way worse.

 

When I first started collecting, I got uncleaned lots from ebay. 99% were duds but I did learn a lot. It may be that this is something you just have to do to get it out of your system. If you are planning to spend $12 then ok fine, if you have $500 to spend then get yourself decent coins and don't waste it on a whole load of duff coins.

Remember that condition is everything. You can find a unique coin, never recorded, incredibly rare, but if it is in crap condition then the value is pretty much $0.

I still clean from time to time but I don't buy uncleaned lots any more.

 

I'm right with your logic. Regardless of how much I have to spend I don't want to spend more than I can see disappear without feeling any sort of way about it. I feel if I buy anything that I don't know about I'm doing just that. That's my same logic with stocks. When I started I chased Mr Buffets picks, which isn't a terrible plan, but that is investing solely on someone else's motives. The more I understood and started learning about the market I realized that without due diligence placing any money is a gamble. I don't know enough about ancient coins to feel good about placing more money than I'd spend going out to dinner. So, I spent $38 total and ordered, what the seller claims to be, one large roman, one Byzantine, one holy land and five medieval coins. To me that's a steak and a beer. I plan on starting with one coin and logging from start to cleaned and doing research on what it is, where its from and the ruler and empire/kingdom that it had purpose for. Even if the coin ends up being the most common, least desired piece of medal in the world of collecting ancients I'll come out of it knowing more than I did before and have a foundation to build upon.

 

I believe somewhere the champion of "Manifest Destiny" has become confused and conflated with an age-old figure of speech. James K. Polk was the 11th president of the US, and if not for the expansionist theory he espoused and enabled would likely be even less well-known than his already obscure niche in American History. I'm aware of him mainly because my next-door neighbor (classmate and fellow coin collector) when I was a teen was his great-great-grandson. He went on to make a fortune for himself and gave the name some modern fame building consumer electronics, He was mainly famous for his speakers which were, at one point, quite cutting-edge as I understand it.
The old term is "pig in a poke" - a "poke" being any sort of makeshift closed bag, pouch, sack or bindle - something into which one could quickly poke some object or substance. You could have a "poke" of loose tobacco, to use a common example. Presumably, one wouldn't buy a pig without seeing it, and aside from begging the question of why it were thus packaged, it would not afford the purchaser much prior information about his incipient purchase.