ancient uncleaned coins on ebay

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - ancient uncleaned coins on ebay

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:23:13 PM EDT

Being bored, I was browsing ebay and saw that they auction off lots of uncleaned ancient coins. Anyone ever buy any of these, clean them and get anything good? At worst, I know some teachers who could use them for history class.

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:27:09 PM EDT

[#1]

i bought some and put them in some mild acid to get the gunk off. forgot about them, left them in there for over a year, then looked at them again and there wasn't much left that was recognizable as a coin.

oops

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:27:26 PM EDT

[#2]

No, but I remember researching old coins a few years ago and found that most Roman coins were not worth more then $20-50..

Buddy and I found one in the woods (used to be an old Roman settlement out there) and thought maybe we had found our retirement check...

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:29:44 PM EDT

[#3]

A lot of the merchants at the Kandahar Bazaar were selling "uncleaned ancient coins." At first they were intriguing, but then after BS'ing with the guy for a while he finally told me they were fake. Damn they looked real! Those crafty fuckers can make anything. Make sure you know what you're getting.

just a word of caution,
~Dg84

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:32:01 PM EDT

[#4]

Quoted:
i bought some and put them in some mild acid to get the gunk off. forgot about them, left them in there for over a year, then looked at them again and there wasn't much left that was recognizable as a coin. oops

Probably priceless Roman coins...or were.

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:34:35 PM EDT

[#5]

LoL, I seriously doubt that somene would sell a coin for $10 when it could be woth $10,000, just because they didn't feel like letting it sit in a cleaning solution for a few days.

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:35:35 PM EDT

[#6]

Just watch out for the ass pennies.

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:38:40 PM EDT

[#7]

You should bid on one of those "pieces of toast with Virgin Mary's image burned on them" instead.

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:50:25 PM EDT

[#8]

I don't know, but I was doing the same thing just two days ago and I wanted to check it out so I bought some. I got 20 of them for like 30 bucks so if they turn out to be rocks or subway tokens who gives a shit. Even if they are worthless it'll be worth the money to me just to get one that has some kind of definition to it. I like that kind of stuff.

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:52:34 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
Being bored, I was browsing ebay and saw that they auction off lots of uncleaned ancient coins. Anyone ever buy any of these, clean them and get anything good? At worst, I know some teachers who could use them for history class.

I purchased some for the fun of it, knowing they were going to be the picked over nobody else wanted coins. These coins are so bad the bath wash doesn't work, and there's a cement like coating on some probably from laying in the dirt for many years. I was trying a metal dental pick on some but they never cleaned up that well.

They are still fun to look, but don't expect anything worth much. Pay the lowest price you can find.

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:56:02 PM EDT

[#10]

Neat piece of history if bought from someone reputable.

Even authentic, Roman coins are not valuble or scarce (unless gold or other significant characteristics.) They were minted in such quanity that even today, they still dig up huge caches of them.

Posted: 2/2/2006 12:58:48 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Neat piece of history if bought from someone reputable.

Even authentic, Roman coins are not valuble or scarce (unless gold or other significant characteristics.) They were minted in such quanity that even today, they still dig up huge caches of them.

yup, before the SHTF towards the end of the roman empire, a lot of roman survivalists buried their cash and weapons.... how little things change

Posted: 2/2/2006 1:13:22 PM EDT

[#12]

Yeah many of the roman coins worth only their weight in metal. but if you find an Aureus...

Anyway people searching and selling them by pounds are nothing more than looters.Coins are some of the best dating tools for an archeologist.

I'm a student in third years of Archeology and i have see the result of their "search"it's really ugly.
They are not only removing precious scientifical informations but they are also messing with the layers.

Posted: 2/2/2006 2:00:02 PM EDT

[#13]

Of course ebay is rip-off city... but there ARE tons of late Roman Empire and early Byzantine coins out there, many -- perhaps most-- of them worth only 1 to 5 dollars after cleaning.

Buy you a good Roman coin ID book, join the discussion group ancientartifacts at yahoo groups, buy you a BRASS bristle brush and enjoy a great new hobby.

Posted: 2/2/2006 2:09:52 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
Just watch out for the ass pennies.

I have over a million of them in circulation!

Posted: 2/2/2006 3:33:46 PM EDT

[#15]

Man - ive seen those too and want to get some.

I know I wont get "rich". Its not really a scam though. You pay for having a peice of history and the fun of cleaning and IDing the coins.

These arent rare coins, as others have said. Like stamps and other things, it is too cumber some to clean and catalouge each item to sell individually. So you go over it and pick out the gold stuff and sell the rest as a grab bag.

One in awhile you hit the lottery and find something worth more than you bought the lot for, but generally its just "junk" to a coin collector, and neat stuff for a novice.

Posted: 2/2/2006 3:35:21 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
yup, before the SHTF towards the end of the roman empire, a lot of roman survivalists buried their cash and weapons.... how little things change

I think this was common all the time. No banks. Or people didnt trust banks. So they buried their money. If they died - it just sat.

Posted: 2/2/2006 3:38:05 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
No, but I remember researching old coins a few years ago and found that most Roman coins were not worth more then $20-50..

Buddy and I found one in the woods (used to be an old Roman settlement out there) and thought maybe we had found our retirement check...

+1 old Roman coins are pretty common. When I lived in Italy they were everywhere. I think at the time most were going for 35,000Lira, echange at the time made it about $29

Posted: 2/2/2006 3:45:59 PM EDT

[#18]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Just watch out for the ass pennies.

I have over a million of them in circulation!

I've been sticking $30 in pennies up my ass for the past 11 years! That's 3,000 pennies a day; 21,000 pennies a week; 1,092,000 pennies a year! To date that's 12,012,000 pennies, 8 times the population of Nebraska. Those pennies were in my ass! You think you're better than me? Oh, you're not better than me. You handle my ass pennies everyday. You pick up my ass pennies for good luck. You throw my ass pennies in fountains and make wishes on them. You give my ass pennies to your little daughter to buy gumballs with.

You've all touched something that has been in my ass!

Posted: 2/2/2006 4:19:34 PM EDT

[#19]

We named our son Julian (he's eight months now) and I thought I'd buy an Emperor Julian II coin for him for his first birthday.

Does anyone know much about them?

Here's the little emperor:

Posted: 2/2/2006 4:55:12 PM EDT

[#20]

Here is a pic of my roman coin collection.

edited to add if you want to learn more or purchase some cleaned
or unclean coins then check this out...

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php

Posted: 2/2/2006 5:03:26 PM EDT

[#21]

I have bought over 100 on ebay. My kids and I like to clean them up and identify them in a book we bought for that purpose.

I built a electrolysis unit to clean them. It's much quicker.

Balming

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - ancient uncleaned coins on ebay

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