Opinions On My First Batch Of Uncleaned Ancients?

Yup, whole different ballgame. Uncleaned ancients are pretty much meant to be cleaned up. Cleaning doesn't usually take away from the value and appearance of an ancient; on the contrary, if done right, and the coin isn't totally mangled/worn down, the value will go up and appearance will be improved.

I agree with chrsmat, lightly scraping with a needle would work. Might also want to use a magnifying glass while your doing this, for the smaller spaces (like between letters for example).

Here are the initial results:
I think I see the profile of someone.


Same coin, look like a trident or something to that affect.


The rest of the coins didn't show much except for this one. As someone pointed out, it was caked with something, a needle and some patience and that layer of caking was easily removed to reveal...a whole lot of nothing!

yeah, go for the metal needle, at least give it a try...you're not really going to go wrong here. as gg says, try soaking for a while, like a week or so, then hit it again. also, there seems to be something magic about the transition from wet to dry that makes for good gunk removal. i'll pull them out of the water, give a wipe to dry partially, then start picking...stuff starts to come off the coin.

experiment and have fun!

- correct, this is also why it is recommended for bronze disease, it helps remove the 'bad' minerals from the coin.

there you go, I bet that first picture (#3)turns out to be a soldiers with standard, but would swear. seven is absolutely a fel temp fallen horseman.

keep on a cleanin'!