Uncleaned ancient source

=> that's a fricken great idea (unfortunately it means that you're doing both ideas ... a bit expensive, but a flawless experiment)

=> "please" keep us posted on the results (photos of him cheering would be awesome ... photos of him frustrated and throwing the coins would be just as cool)

... it's a super-cool experiment

Oooww, I'm excited ....... hey, maybe I'll adopt a kid and try this experiment? (what could go wrong?)

 

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Now I know how new US collectors feel. I am a total fish out of water here. I have no idea what I was doing, but I put in a few bids on coins that I liked on the bay. Hopefully I'll only get burned enough to attribute it to the cost of an education. It's too easy, I cant remember the last time that I spent $20-30 on a coin, my usual purchases are hundreds if not thousands. How are these so inexpensive (the ones that I was shopping anyway)?

 

Could I be that kid? I'll even pay for my trip to your house!

 

My first experience with uncleaned coins was when I was a newbie to ancients - I won a group of 50 "Greek" coins for about $80 in an eBay auction. When I received the coins, I was really disappointed. They were so tiny, covered in muck, hardly recognisable as coins. I soaked them in distilled water and forgot about them.

A few months later, I came back to them, and gave them a gentle scrub - this time, I could see actual portraits and designs on the coins. My interest renewed, I cleaned them all up and found they were small Seleucids and Judean coins in reasonable condition. Nothing exceedingly rare, but collectible! I ended up selling them and doubled my money.

After that I was hooked. I bought Roman uncleaned lots. It was exciting at first - but soon I discovered that all you get is the same half dozen 4th century emperors, and the same familiar dull reverse types. Very occasionally, I'd find a low grade 3rd century silver denarius, but never gold of course.

So then I became very particular about the uncleaned coins I bought. The best lots were large uncleaned coins (1st-2nd centuries) - and these were the most fascinating: interesting provincials, nice big sestertii... low grade, but mostly identifiable. I haven't seen these being offered for a long time.

I think Dirty Old Coins still offers a good selection of uncleaned coins. There's a lot of junk on eBay though.

 

I bid on 17 coins, but only snagged this one. I have no idea how I did, but for $24.50 delivered I like it. I'm not sure how common it is for women to be on coins of this era, but maybe I'll specialize in ancient dames. Sellers notes:
Faustina I, wife of Antoninus Pius,
Wife of Antoninus Pius
Struck 148-161AD

AR Silver DENARIUS 17-18mm (2.94gm) Rome mint
Obv./DIVA FAVSTINA, draped bust right.
Rev./ AETE-R-NITAS, Aeternitas, Providentia, or Urania standing front holding globe, veil blowing out around head.

 

The price is about right. You can quickly acquire quite a few rulers and empresses in that condition for that amount. But then you'll want to complete the set with the rarer ones... Well, that was my experience anyway.

 

This is how it starts. Wait till you get it in hand!

 

A lot of ancient coins really aren't that expensive compared to modern US coins. You'd be surprised how many ancient coins one can find for $200 or less. My oldest coin is around 2,327 years old and features Alexander the Great, and I got it by selling off an 1878 CC Morgan Dollar. I had enough money left to spare after selling the Morgan Dollar as to get the Alexander the Great tetradrachm, go get lunch, and get a full tank of gas. Yeah, a 2,300+ year old fairly large and heavy silver coin was cheaper than a 137 year old American silver dollar coin by that much.
Anyway, nice first purchase!

 

Well maybe, but this is more my style. This is supposed to be for the kid anyway, but I look at it like I do Halloween candy; you don't buy candy that you don't want for yourself.

 

I don't know anything about US coins but I'm keen to know more. What's the appeal of this one? What makes it special?

 

That seems to be a large Cent in XF-45 to AU-50 condition. Very nice patina to it. I've had a few of those myself, but have sold them off. I find the 2 Cent and 3 Cent pieces more interesting personally, but it's still a nice coin.

The large Cent is interesting in that it is much larger than the modern penny. They are fairly large and heavy coins by today's standards.

 

That's a great coin! Now if you had an ancient about the same value retail you might be surprised.

 

I agree the cent is a worthwhile coin but I can't say I need a 1857 and 1855 to go with it. Ancients allow a collection of a thousand types not even a little similar to each other and many times that if you get interested to the point that parallels collecting cents by date. The good thing is we all have the option of doing this in our own way.

 

This coin was on my watch list, and you may have had some more competition had I not gotten distracted by a different auction. You did very well on this coin, which is a fine representative of its type.

 

It's why you need to watch your kids on the internet.

Kids love to rebel, however if he starts watching videos on how to open a slab, or worse......videos of people handling proofs bare handed..............well you might want to step in. Otherwise you might find he ran off to Bulgaria with a metal detector and a dream.

In the meantime you might want to send your moderns to a bank for safe keeping.

 

It is a MS-63 and is a nice representation of the type. These are generally made with fairly worn dies and tend to have washed out details.

 

Kirk is actually a slab cracker. He's filling Danscos

 

Kirkuleez => sweet, that's awesome that your lil' dude wants to collect ancients!!

Oh, and I love your first choice (a chick-coin is a great idea ... ummm, not as cool as an animal-coin, but still pretty cool)

As Jwt said => Wait till you get it in hand! ($10 says you'll be on-board) ...

Ummm, oh and yes, you can actually touch them with your hands!!



welcome aboard, coin-bro

I have a cool example of Faustina-I ...




... oh, and that's a very cool 1856 cent you've got there ...

I collect(ed) moderns as well ...

1893 Canadian Quarter (100,000 minted => AU55 ... Best in Show)




... kinda sweet, eh?



I hope that you stick around and start collecting a handful of "affordable and awesome" ancient coins

=> we all rock!!

 

Here are two coins I got from an uncleaned coin batch. I overcleaned them and my photography blows, but it was interesting to find two such similar coins in a batch.

 

There are plenty of large cent die varieties seeing as these were still hand carved, but I personally find this type of collecting a little over the top. Not to bash anyone's collecting preference, but I'd just rather do a date set and move on. I just completed the date run from 39-57 and am now doing the braided hair half cents. I'd really like to do the proof set, but my wallet does have its limitations. This is my only braided hair half cent proof (as of now), but since I just bought a house and a couple of rental properties, it is likely to be my only one for quite a bit. With an estimated original mintage of only fifty coins, this one is elusive by any standard. There are known second and third restrikes of the 1852 made by the mint for collectors likely in the late 1860s.
Yep, I'm trying to bring you guys to the bright side; though it feels like an uphill battle.