Help With Identity

Its familiarity mainly - after a while you can roughly date a coin from its appearance and begin to recognise Emperors and reverse designs.

Being able with a good search engine is certainly a help but there are not many short-cuts in attributing these coins. You just need to keep reading threads etc and the info 'sinks-in' slowly but surely

You nailed it with the fourth one bobbyhelmet ... Constans. Thanks for the tip too. Thanks to everyone, this has been fun, and I can't wait to get some more and maybe help someone else in the future ...

Cool - It should also have a mintmark beneath the two figures on the reverse that will start with 'SMTS' and will end with one of the following 'A', 'B', Gamma or Delta (last two are Greek symbols that cant often be displayed in the text in this forum, Google them to see what they look like. Ones half a 'T' and the other a triangle)

'SMTS' stands for 'Sacred Money from Thessalonica' and the last symbol is the workshop number, in order as written above 1 to 4.




The fun of IDing these never seems to wear off to me

Cleaning methods really depend on the individual coins. For many coins distilled water soaks work the best.

cbrabha! You'll find the members of this forum are the most friendly, knowledgeable and helpful to us novices!

Cleaning you coins is an experiment in patience as well as technique. As said earlier, distilled water works as well as olive oil and of course many different caustic dips. But fine brushes and much patience give your coins the best chance of looking great. Good luck to you!

Welcome back - happy to see the bug has bitten you and your back with more

I'll confirm what you have:

Valens 364-378
DN VALEN-S PF AVG - pearl diadem, draped, cuirassed.
SECVRITAS-REIPVBLICAE - Victory advancing left with wreath and palm branch.
TES - Minted in Thessalonica
Star over V in left field gamma in right.
RIC IX Thessalonica 18b/27b, type xxxiii

I think the second is from Constantinople and is Constans or Constantius II, not 100% sure which though.




Very true, everyone is different, generally the slower the method the less chance of accidentally 'over-doing' it but the less exciting it is. Everybody ruins a couple of coins before they find a method that suits them. Start with a soak in distilled water and gradually move up in severity as the suborn coins refuse to give up their details. We have plenty of people on here who have cleaned a lot of coins so will be able to offer you a lot of methods to try.