I know they sell uncleaned coin lots on ebay. Wanted to check what other places are good to buy from? I mainly am looking for any info experience wise buying from these places. I didnt mean it to sound like "give me the secret spot to get good uncleaned coins"....but a non secret place will work fine..haha...
I had to add I have been doing research and went thru the faq, looks like buying a few non junk (less crud) non cleaned coins might be the answer then trying to buy a big lot of supper crudded ones. I am mainly looking for experienced guys and how todays market goes, with sellers on these lots. some of the threads in the faq that had good info was in 2008 and I hear alot of stuff that says uncleaned/unsearched is bs as far as most people go thru these lots and pull out the best ones they see, My take is are the old crusty one you cant see under the crud are these good lots these days from what you all buy? Another member told me about 20% come out ok after cleaning but alot will be slugs and be prepaired, this is why I also thought the better looking less crudded (is that a word? Lol) ones might be better to get and clean. Hope that made sence.
In my opinion, the school of hard knocks is the best way to learn. 100 failures later yoy start to learn what to look for and what to look out for
I know in the thread on the faq fourm one guy said its def a crap shoot unless you can see the pics of the actual uncleaned coins you are buying. I may start hitting some coin shows and see what I can find also in uncleaned coins.
You could try Noble Roman Coins, although only about 30-40% are cleanable, the ones that are able to be cleaned turn out to be rather high quality. Check out this review I did: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/noble-roman-coins-premium-uncleaned-review.360569/
Thats some great info. Is some of the crud on these coins like concrete? I was thinking of trying out a few dimes baked in clay and a couple with some jb weld and one with concrete on it to test out the tools to get my scrapping/picking experience started.
Yes, similar to concrete in that it’s made of various small rock particles that sort of adheres to the coin very strongly. perhaps practicing on concrete coated coins would be a good start
I used to buy from Crusty Romans in the UK who sold bulk lots of late roman bronze. The cull rate was pretty high though. For example I spent $300 on a lot of 220 coins with maybe 50 being identifiable, and maybe 10-15 being collectible so it really ends up not as much of a bargain as one would think. While it's fun to get the heavy package full of coins in the mail and pouring them out on a plate and seeing what you've got, after awhile the number of culls gets to you. I suppose ebay is an OK place to buy them so long as your expectations aren't high.
This might not be the answer you want to hear, so I apologize in advance. I, too, have started collecting ancients by buying a few lots of uncleaned late Roman bronze coins. Only few of them are still part of my collection, and there are even fewer of them that I like. If you buy uncleaned lots, a considerable percentage of what you get will be unidentifiable slugs. Most of the rest will be heavily worn or somewhat damaged late Roman bronze coins. Those will be attributable to some degree but far from pleasant to look at. The number of emperors and reverse types you'll get will be limited – prepare to read the letters "CONSTAN..." more often than you care for and see a zillion speared barbarians on horseback, Roman soldiers guarding standards, and campgate watchtowers. And even if you get a nice coin in the mix now and then, chances are that you'll ruin it during your cleaning attempts. In my opinion, there are mainly two good things about uncleaned lots. First, they have some eductional value if you want to to learn about Roman history in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. Secondly, coin cleaning is an interesting hobby of its own if you are into this. But if you want to build a fine Roman collection, buying cleaned coins is the better decision both financially and with regards to your collecting experience.
I started off with uncleaned. After around 1200-1500 of them, I’m generally over it and only get cleaned, or mostly Cleaned coins now. The only benefit of those thousand coins is that I’m now really good at cleaning coins, to the point that I’m comfortable buying and cleaning more expensive coins. so, not all bad. But not all good either
I've purchased almost all of mine via ebay but I cant say that one particular seller or store has better options than another. From what ive seen its just as random as can be. Some times there are good lots that you can clearly see details for and then there are some that are just jumbled together. I've personally learned to be patient and pick up small lots here and there. This is after staring at the pictures for several hours or days trying to make things out and even then I have received slugs as you never really know the condition of a coin until it is in hand. My last few uncleaned lots I did manage to luck out with though, received some hidden silvers in the mix that just were not cleaned and over looked. I doubt I will have that kind of luck again though lol.
