Coin Dealer Review - Common Bronze Uncleaned Coins
One of my favorite coin collecting categories is ancient Greek and Roman coins. I have been collecting them since my college days, when I'd buy "freshly dug-up" ancient coins by the kilo from ads in the back of magazines like Biblical Archeology and Archeology Today. The coins usually arrived with bits and pieces of ancient bronze junk, such as fibulae with no pins, or bits broken off of military implements and gear. The coins were generally low-grade and needed some cleaning, and when they've been buried for upwards of 2,000 years, soap and water isn't going to do the job. If it was that easy, you wouldn't be able to buy this stuff so cheaply.
With the advent of the Web and eBay, ancient uncleaned coins went mainstream. Early eBay dealers would sell them by the coin, at 20 cents to $1.00 each, and as new collectors flocked to this fascinating uncleaned coins hobby, amazing claims were made. Some people claimed to have found gold coins in these low-grade, low-priced lots. What they really found was orichalcum, a brass alloy that shines golden bright when new (or harshly over-cleaned.) The Romans used orichalcum for certain denominations of coins, so that the color would help tell the denominations apart. Although the dealers selling the stuff knew better, they'd play up the claims of gold being found in their lots by running eBay ads proclaiming things like, "GOLD FOUND 60 Cents Per Coin L@@k!" Gold is a noble metal, and high-purity gold like the Romans generally used doesn't tarnish or accrue adhesions, even when buried for millennia. Any gold coins the diggers might have found when they dug up these coins is long gone before the low-grade lots are sold by the pound or kilo (or nowadays by the count.) So, "gold found" became a sort of inside joke to uncleaned coins buyers. We knew that any dealer who claimed this in his auctions was a charlatan.
As the Web spread its tentacles across the world, the farmers and diggers who found the uncleaned coins became more knowledgeable about them, and the quality of the lots declined even as the price went up. In the early days, you could find silver dollar-sized coins down to dime-sized, and everything in between. The diggers and wholesalers learned that they could get more money for bigger, heavier coins, so these started disappearing from the lots. Then they learned that certain types of coins were more desirable, such as the spiky-crown "radiates" (called antoniniani,) and those began disappearing. Nowadays, most uncleaned Roman coin lots are comprised of about 90% "late Roman bronze" coins, dating from the period of Constantine the Great through the fall of the Roman Empire. As the quality has declined, prices have risen, so that now you'll rarely find uncleaned coins under a $1 each, and if you expect to see decent quality you'll pay $2.50 to $3.00 per coin, minimum. This is still dirt cheap (heh, no pun intended) for an ancient Roman coin of Constantine the Great and his successors that is 1,600 years old or so, and that's why ancient uncleaned coins is one of the best hobbies going for young collectors on short budgets.
Uncleaned Coins From CommonBronze.com
Now that you have a little background on what uncleaned coins are, I'll tell you that my Dealer Review this week is for one of the leading sellers of uncleaned coins, CommonBronze.com. The proprietors, Tom Ross and Tony Jaworski, are long-time uncleaned coins fans who bought these coins from other retailers for years before starting their own endeavor. They know what an uncleaned coins customer wants, and they understand how to convey accurate information about the quality of their lots so as to avoid disappointment. Tom and Tony are very active in the online ancient coins community, frequently helping new collectors get started, and always ready to offer a helpful hint when it comes to thorny cleaning problems.
When you visit CommonBronze.com's Web site, you'll see that there is one gold coin for sale. This is sort of a nod to the old joke about "GOLD FOUND" dealers. Tom and Tony state right up front that you will not find gold coins in their lots, but beyond that, anything goes. Low-purity silver coins are occasionally (very rarely) found, and rare coins are found all the time. In ancient coins, though, rare does not necessarily equal valuable. Each ancient coin was struck by hand, so no two coins are ever exactly alike. If you're the kind of person who likes to hold a coin in your hand and imagine where it's been, and who used it, and for what, ancient coins will blow your mind! Imagine a coin that circulated in the Holy Land during Christ's lifetime! Who might have held it? How about a coin of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor? It is said by some that Constantine minted 100,000,000 coins a year during his reign! Each coin, hand struck by individually hand-carved dies, a genuine ancient work of art right in your hand. For $3 per coin, how can you beat that?!
Comments
Susan’s coverage of the ancient coin market is right on target. While so many are actually worthless junk once they’ve been cleaned, however, a diligent coin collector WILL in time find more than just a few rarities, nicer grades, and other pleasant surprises. Soaking them in about 50-coin lots in olive oil for about a month, then gently brushing them with soft, medium, or even hard bristle bras brushes IS worth the hassle. I strongly recommend these “uncleaned” Greco-Roman coins to younger collectors, as thy are cheap, fascinating, and very likely to spark a lifelong interest in coins among those ho try these first. I’v cleaned thousands of them and sold many to pay for the initil expendture, leaving me with thousands more fr free! Beat That!
Good Luck, Dave Egeland, Linn, MO