To The Cleaners...

When I bought 1000 uncleaned lots on average 300 of the coins were junk, the rest were good attributed coins with 100 or so in higher grade. Now that the price has exceed $1000 per lot it's not worth taking the chance buying large lots.

Depends on the source as well. The dryer the climate the better chance at fewer culls. Also mode of preservation. A horde buried in the desert will age better than a bunch buried in a cloth sack near the Rhine. I'd say 15-25% is accurate.

Ok, to bring some perspective to this whole issue, here's how I bring in the uncleaned coins I sell to the US. I e-mail one of my suppliers in, say, Israel and ask for a price on 5, 10, or 25 Kg of unsorted uncleaned coins. He gets them from villagers in Israel who find them either as their primary activity in fields, caves, or wherever. I know that he goes through the lots once in a while and plucks out a few nice onesto make what are called "attributed lots" which are really just ones that he can tell are Roman or Greek or whatever a client has asked for. He also pulls the junk that the villagers put in there to bulk up the weight, like old rusty nuts, gears and scrap metal. Coins which are "attributed" cost more per Kg than plain mixed uncleaneds. I try to get uncleaneds that haven't been picked out of, which the wholesalers are usualy pretty obliging about.
Gold and silver are already separated out by the villagers and are handled as a separate transaction. They rarely make it into the mixed uncleaneds.
So I've already gottn a price and I want to buy some, so he weighs out however much, and puts it into a box and takes that to the Israel Antiquities Authority for export authorization. There IA will verify that he is not tring to export some vital national treasure or prohibited item. I only buy from wholesalers with export licenses, and only vendors with export licenses can export antiquities legally from most countries. Having a licensed shipment is very important if you want to stay out of trouble with the US Government. But all of this adds cost.
So then it gets approved by IA and is mailed to me. It's inspected by customs in Israel and the US (hopefully), and it comes to my shop.
Then I look at the lot and figure out how best to sell it. Some are separated out into recognizable types (Islamic, Greek, Roman, Byzantine) for sale as uncleaned lots of those types. Some are sold as uncleaned mixed coins. Some (not many) I pull out and clean for fun, I am a collector after all and it's just plain fun. Any duplicates I find get sold as cleaned or partially cleaned either individually or by lot. The culls are sold as lots of culls (what may be my cull someone else may not think is a cull).
Don't believe the guys who say "direct from the digger" or anything like that. They make it seem like they're driving around Israel buying coins from villagers who found them in a cave. They're probably not. They're probably like everyone else who gets them from a wholesaler in Israel, Slovenia, Turkey, Lebanon, Albania, etc. Also, don't believe the guys who say "you may find gold". Gold never even makes it into the uncleaned lots except by mistake. The villagers know gold is valuable and sell it separately. Silver is more likely bcause it oxidizes heavily and can get mixed in there with the other crusties. You do stand a reasonable chance of finding silver once in a while.
So there it is. Hope this clears things up a bit.
So there it is.

The price has gone up for a few reasons.
1) Better enforcement of export controls. It costs money for an export license, for the paperwork, for the inspections, etc. That price is passed on to the final buyer. Shipping has also increased dramatically in the last 3-5 years everywhere. It's disgusting what shipping costs.
2) Syria is not a viable supply of coins right now.
3) The flow of illegally dug (i.e. looted) coins from Iraq and Afghanistan is slowing. Iran can't export legally, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia are not really exporting right now. So that leaves Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, some assorted Balkan nations and Spain which are exporting decent amounts of uncleaneds.

There is no decrease in the amounts of coins being found out there like some ebay listings say. These things literally litter the Roman world.

I'm thinking of putting some uncleaneds on ebay soon for the first time in a while. I'm considering selling by the gram in 10 gram increments. I hadn't been using ebay because the fees are a pain but I can sell small lots (10-100 g) there instead of the large lots(500 g/100 piece+) I usually do on uncleaneds. Still trying to decide whether to segregate into Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and sell separately or just sell mixed as I get them. Suggestions?

Thank you very much for the insight jcmworld. While I would probably never figure that out on my own it makes perfect sense with your explanation. I will have to keep an eye out on ebay for your auctions.

IMHO, mixed, but take special requests from the people who make a point of asking. You could even state in the description 'If you have a preference for Greek, Roman, Byzantine...'.




I would prefer 'per coin' or 'per 10 coins', if its per gram a couple of big slugs could ruin your whole lot.

Well, I'm planning to get a lot to sell and I can tell you the figures fgrom the onset of that. The first lot is 100 to prove whether it is profitable (or not) so the price might be slighrly inflated for the first lot.