KoRnholio Posted February 21, 2009 Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 I think I'd like to get more into collecting ancient Roman coins. I don't really know which types in particular, but I think I'd enjoy getting a small to mid sized lot of uncleaned coins and going through the process of cleaning them myself. Perhaps a lot of 20-50 coins with variety in size and types (Roman, Byzantine, etc). Can anyone recommend a good Ebay seller or website that I could get a decent lot of these from? I have browsed Ebay and I see many of these lots, but I don't want to end up buying a lot of total junk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted February 23, 2009 Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 I have heard good things about Noble Romans Nemisis Common Bronze. But I have never bought from any of them so.... A good ebay guy to buy from is Oldman. Right now he seems a little low from what he has normally. But he is up front about what you are buying. 100 % feedback Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoRnholio Posted February 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 Thanks Mark, this was exactly what I was looking for. I will probably end up buying a lot from oldcoinman. He seems very honest and on the ball about his product, unlike nearly all the other uncleaned coin lots I have seen on ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoRnholio Posted February 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2009 Bought the small lot of 10 Roman/Greek coins, I can't wait to try my hand at cleaning them up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoRnholio Posted March 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 I've got them soaking now, some in olive oil and some in distilled water. It has only been a few days, but I think it is starting to work. Any ideas how many weeks of soaking/cleaning/repeat it will take before they are identifiable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted March 8, 2009 Report Share Posted March 8, 2009 Most of the lighter outside crust will come off fairly fast. The deeper hard stuff can take months. It's all according to where it was found and what kind of dirt it was in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoRnholio Posted March 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2009 After 4 days of soaking I took them out for a soap and water bath and scrub with an old toothbrush. The ones in distilled water showed little to no improvement. The olive oil seems to be working faster than distilled water. There was one coin in olive oil that appears worse now though. I think it is just from being corroded/pitted underneath the dirt. I think once they get closer to bare metal/patina, I will start doing distilled water rather than olive oil. Tonight they all went into olive oil. Here's a pic of the coin that appears worse now (before olive oil is on the right, after the olive oil bath and scrub on the left): And here is one of the more promising looking ones: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted March 17, 2009 Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 For the first piece, I probably would have left it. Contrasting dirt usually helps bring out the details, especially on lower relief coins. The second piece appears to be a Constantinople issue of the SECVRITAS REPVBLICAE type of the 360s-70s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted March 17, 2009 Report Share Posted March 17, 2009 Try Vcoins.com sometime, there are dozens of sellers on there, and the coins are a bit better for your hard earned dosh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benz Gemz Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Good luck with your cleaning! I've moved from mostly cleaning coins to primarily buying them already cleaned as I narrow my collecting focus, but uncleaned is a great way to begin. Check with the yahoo group Coinzappers for a different perspective on cleaning. Also there are a good number of sites with cleaning information out there. Look for the Noble Roman Coins website for some good info on cleaning too. I've been selling the coins I have that are surplus to my collection, this includes uncleaned and cleaned coins, mostly at fixed prices or auctions that are not expected to draw more than the opening bid, but I'm using ebid instead of ebay. You will find a small group of sellers there, but I think worth a look. If you would like to sign up to bid on their site, follow this link: http://us.ten.ebid.net/perl/normal.cgi?ref...o=register-main Thanks, Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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