I've never done this before...lol (wierd right? A year into ancients and still have yet to clean one) anyways...I gots a question...I see people advertise "coins are attributable to the emperor, and some even fully attributable" ????? How do they know this if the coins have yet to be cleaned? And what is the point of cleaning them if you can already tell who the emperor is? stainless
The rub with uncleaned is this. Someone buys 10 uncleaned...they get them crusty and cant tell what is under the crud. They take the time to clean them (this can be a long process) and when they get them cleaned, there is nothing there...just a smooth slug. Now the buyer gets all mad and goes back to the seller saying 'you ripped me off!!' Now common sense will tell a person if a coin it completely coated with crust to the point where you must chip away and soften an almost concrete like rock that encases a coin...the seller cannot tell what it is before he sends it. He just knows its probably not worth his time trying to clean it because, from cherry picking, he can be pretty sure that they are probably mostly common issues and in the worst shape of the lot. Now if you buy completely crusty uncleaned...you never know, there may be that one coin out of so many others that comes out quite well...might be a slightly more rare variety, etc...but most will be very rough, in poor shape. I have a jar full of these coins ( a few in fact), MANY you can attribute you can tell what it is, who it is, maybe where it was minted...but the coin is so mangled and corroded that you dont add it to your collection because of the shape the coin is in. So its in the jar. So sellers will preclean to ensure you get a coin that can at least be partially identified. Problem is they will also be able to spot the better coins and cherry pick them and will always be able to send YOU the most common and borderline. No surprises. If I can, I get the most crusty. They are often cheaper and yield the worst ratio of attributable coins to unattributable. But with these type of lots I have found a real gem here and there and you can usualy tell after a certain point if a coin is going to be worth further cleaning after you expose enough in a first round of cleaning. Its all in the seller and how many middleman's hands the coins have been through. Most have already changed hands many times, there will be no gold ever, no silver. I had a chance to get a lot of unclean closer to the source for a bit and received the best uncleaned lots I have ever purchased....good sellers with access to a good hoard who do not have an in-depth knowledge of coins. just see the pile of coins as a product to sell off in bulk is always the best source if you can find it
What Dru said above LOL thing is with the realy uncleaned lots, you need to look at them as been fun and nothing else realy. If you do find something nice then that is a bonus but dont have great expectations before you start.
I found the time i spent over the summer cleaning mine to be rather fun most were as people have already stated common. Now they weren't super super crusty but it took a good chuck of time and brushing to see what I finally had. If your looking for a fun side project I'd def say take a chance and clean a few but if your looking to find anything of value i'd look else where have fun if you choose to order some :hail:
Good luck with the search. Garrett really enjoyed the process of cleaning and the surprise of discovering what he had. Unfortunately what he had was fakes. I can tell you where not to order from.
Hello all, I read on another thread about Freaky Garret's fakes. Could someone PM me some relaible places to buy some unlceaned ancinet lots? Many thanks. I bought my first two ancients last friday. I am still a newbie.
vcoins.com forumancientcoins.com ebay has some, just be sure they have an actualy pic of the lot your gona buy.
I would not buy them from ebay. Especially not a place called Grandpas Closet. The seller is not a grandpa, it is some lady named Laura lol. Be careful because they also sell on amazon.com
Randygeki, Thanks for the links. FreakyGarretC-Thanks for the warning, I am so sorry about your troubles, but from you sharing your experience someone else won't get taken in by the same cheat.
