This is the 3rd Probus coin I have pulled from a uncleaned lot I purchased a bit ago. I wasn't expecting so many in the bunch but am glad that I picked it up. Looks like there may be one more in the group of uncleaned but not certain yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed though. Ric 152 Probus 276 AD. Rome IMP PROBVS PF AVG radiate curiassed bust facing right IOVI STATORI Jupiter standing facing right holding scepter and thunderbolt Z on right Mintmark XXIZ
Nice coin. Congratulations. It's really thrilling to find a coin like that in a lot of uncleaned coins, isn't it? One time I found two large, unrecognizable black blobs, each about 1/4" thick, in an uncleaned lots. At first I wasn't even sure that they were coins. I had to use electrolysis to clean them. Here's what I ended up with: Think I was happy?
Before everyone rushes out and buys a thousand "unrecognizable black blobs" we need to know how many lesser coins we have to expect before another winner appears. If the lot cost an average of 10 cents a coin and you get one real winner in a thousand coins, that makes winners $100 each. You should be happy, very happy. Lottery winners are usually happy.
Congratulation of the find, but my experience with "uncleaned" lots seems to be the same as @dougsmit. I found it's not worth my time or money!
The lot that harbored these was rather small, I think maybe 20 coins in all. But I've cleaned over a thousand coins over the years, and these two were probably the nicest finds. BTW, I have earned money cleaning, IDing and then selling ancient coins. When I consider the time spent, my expenses and my profit, I figure I probably brought in at least a dollar and hour for my efforts, maybe even as much as a $1.25/hr.! I suppose I could complain to the NLRB, but I'm not sure who to blame. Actually though, when I consider the joy of discovery and the education I received by cleaning uncleaned ancient coins, I consider my efforts very successful. Great hobby--lousy business.
Wow, a $1.25 an hour is what I earned as a teen in the early 60's. Of course the money earned is not the reason to get into uncleaned lots. I wonder how many treasures (read that as rare, expensive) coins have been discovered in unclean lots. My money is on not many.
Depends on whether you are talking about today or back in the "Golden Age" after the fall of the iron curtain, when uncleaned lots from Eastern Europe flooded the west. There were lots of treasures to be had back then. Many of the coins still in my permanent collection came from uncleaned lots. Today, not so much.
Like Valentinian, I have also spent countless hours cleaning late roman bronzes and perusing Doug Smiths homepage for help with IDs. It's a fond memory, and it was a great learning experience, but it's most often money out the window "investment"-wise. I still buy uncleaneds, but only in lots that I can see before buying. The general "1$ per coin" deal is lousy most of the time. And after buying a lot of about 500 coins many, many years ago, I still have archeaological excavations at home, finding uncleaned coins in jars stuffed away various places. When finding them, my inner Danny Glover tells me that I'm too old for this sh*t.
I started out a few years ago with uncleans as a way to get back into the hobby. I was intrigued buying by the half-kilo so working out to about $1.20 per coin. Came up with lots of FEL TEMP REPARATIO's, GLORIA EXERCITVS, and so forth. Overall it was fun but I agree the wage is kind of low for the hours spent.
So what I thought was going to be another Probus, actually turned out to be another Gallienus. Not a zoo coin like the one I posted before but still good looking. Also, I didn't pay too much for the lot of coins. I believe it came out to be about 80 dollars for about 35-40 coins. Will admit about 8 or 9 were complete crud, but not much could be done about those. Feel like the lot itself made up for it with all the goodies I've found in it. This also includes theJulia Mamaea and Somamea (spelling?) I posted before. Still have about a handful or two of coins that I need to go through so maybe some more good news later.
That indeed sounds like a good lot! When I was starting to collect, I bought some uncleaned lots, too. Almost all of the coins I got were worse than the ones you showed and in a condition I would not collect today. Though I thus wouldn't recommend building a collection exclusively by searching through uncleaned lots, I still reckon that cleaning and identifying about 150 3rd and 4th century bronzes in different states of corrosion gave me some numismatic education that was worth a lot more than what I had paid for the coins. Only a few of these coins are still in my collection, the rest of them had to make space for better examples at some point. Among those that stayed is a Valerian with the same reverse as your Gallienus, including the "T"-fieldmark: Valerian I, Roman Empire, AE/BI antoninian, 256–257 AD, Rome mint. Obv: IMP C P LIC VAL[ERIANVS P F] AVG; bust of Valerian, radiate, draped, cuirassed, r. Rev: [P]AX AVG[G]; Pax standing l.. holding olive-branch and sceptre; in l. field, T. 20mm, 2.09g. Ref: RIC V Valerian 109var (fieldmark). Here are some more remnants from these early days of my collecting - most of the uncleaned coins I got were in much lower condition, though: Constantine I, Roman Empire, AE 3, 335–336 AD, Siscia mint. Obv: CONSTANTINVS MAX AVG, bust of Constantine I, diademed, draped and cuirassed, r. Rev: GLORIA EXERCITUS; two soldiers standing facing each other, standard between them. 15mm, 1.45g. Ref: RIC VII Siscia 261. Constantine I, Roman Empire, AE3, 327–329 AD, Heraclea mint. Obv: CONSTANTINVS AVG; head of Constantine, diademed, r., looking upward. Rev: D N CONSTANTINI MAX AVG; “VOT/XXX” within a laurel wreath. 19mm, 3.20g. Ref: RIC VII Heraclea 92. Constantius II, Roman Empire, AE3, 351–355 AD, Sirmium mint. Obv: D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG; bust of Constantius II, pearl-diademed, draped, cuirassed, r. Rev: FEL TEMP REPARATIO; Helmeted soldier to l., shield on l.arm, spearing falling horseman; shield on ground at r. Horseman is bareheaded, turns to face soldier, and extends l. arm; in exergue, BSIRM. 18mm, 2.76g. RIC VIII Sirmium 48.
