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 Replies: 38 / Views: 4,020 |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Ordered 10 uncleaned coins - They finally got here! Great seller - he sent me 11, and even sent me a little request I put in - a 3/4 facing bust and a sitting Roma! Anyway, pictures before are below. If you see anything interesting, please chirp up - after a quick rinse off a lot more detail is already showing. In the picture is also a coin with a bust on each side, so that was a pleasant suprise if someone wants to fill me in on any signicance of such a thing.   Ill update as I clean and identify - and I will identify each one eventually |
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Valued Member
United States
209 Posts |
Wow, nice coins and it was really cool of the seller to take the time to find what you asked for.
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Pillar of the Community
 United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Got a couple with red sand caked on - Well, that or rust, which I hope it isn't.
Im going to clean it off anyway, but I hear its a particularly cherished one thing.
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Looks like you got some nice coins that will clean up well. The third one looks like Theodosius forward facing bust usually the obverse detail is worn on this type. But yours looks like it will have good detail once it's cleaned.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
At least it doesn't look like you have any culls in the lot, and, in fact, it looks like each should be arrtibutable. Might I ask how much you paid for the lot and from where did you make the purchase? As I have said on numerous threads, I have stopped buying uncleaned lots because of all the culls and because when figured in for the culls, the cost of each coin was not worth it. I will be watching to see how you progress on these. Congrats.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
4411 Posts |
Do you care to let us know who the seller was and the cost. I'm thinking of getting a few myself.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
946 Posts |
After mentioning on two other threads how one seller on ebay seems to sell "uncleaned" coins with all his coins, from different eras, caked in the same coloured mud, I am wondering about the "uncleaned" state of the coins, with the same kind of dirt on them. Cleaning will be easy, and in some cases not necessary. As long as you did not pay "too much", the coins look to be in good condition, most important of all. |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
The dirt isn't coming off in the same way as the last coin I cleaned up - However, these are different shapes, all appear to be the same era and all different colours. Anyway, I bought them from Chimera Antiques on ebay - search cAc Uncleaned Coins and you'll see em- you can choose how many you want from a drop down menu, I got 10 for 12.44 and received 11. Its labelled 'No Junks' and its pretty much right - Well, I dont consider any as junks, and a quick picking has shown that a lot of detail has survived under the dirt. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1549 Posts |
Have you IDed the one to the right of the facing bust? It is different.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
I agree - the 'double headed' coin could well turn out to be interesting.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4964 Posts |
those look promising, please keep us posted!
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
Im attacking the one with the two busts now - I thought it had very little surviving on it, but I'm managed to get through to the actual patina and I went through a lot of dirt, so with any luck, more letters are under there. Also, one of the coins doesn't look like a Roman drawn bust, ill post some pictures below. The lettering that survives also looks very crummy, is this one of those 'barberous imitations' I've heard so much about, or is it outright fake?   |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Its not a fake, it could be barbarous but is most likely a late Roman coin. Try looking at the coins and Emperors of the 5th century.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3229 Posts |
Nice coin lot! Congrats and have fun! Try to leave a little of that dirt in place. Sometimes it is the dirt that leaves the coins detail intact:) Below is one of my cleaned uncleaned coins that IMHO turned out ok. What I could have done better was to stop cleaning sooner. If you look at the reverse of this Horonius you can see that heads of the emperors and the mint mark are not very clear. Those areas had more detail just before I "cleaned" them up. I know we use the term "cleaning" a lot, but I try to remember that our "cleaning" of these ancient artifacts is "conservation". The dirt we are cleaning off is often the very thing that has conserved it. Why not let some of that dirt keep its job?   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
Quote:
one of the coins doesn't look like a Roman drawn bust I think it looks CeltIberian, but can't be sure. |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
TJS - Its good advice, but I want to see a clean coin - I am yet to find a coin in which detail is preserved in the dirt (unless I squint really hard at it for a while). Besides, the detail coming out by far outweighs anything lost.
Plus, if theres anything under the dirt, the last person to see it was a real Roman, which is quite satisfying in itself.
Update: One coin which had a reverse that looked unsalvagable has turned into a good coin with little effort - a hard black coating hid the detail, and from what looked like a soldier with standard has come a coin of the Emperor dragging a captive. It also sparkles, should I continue cleaning to try and get the detail to come out, or leave it in its sparkling form?
Edited by Ben
07/23/2012 4:40 pm
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Replies: 38 / Views: 4,020 |
Posted 07/22/2012 6:07 pm
