the amount of people collecting ancient coins is growing everyday,i would like to share with you a bit of advise about the numerous  "UNCLEANED" coins offered on ebay.many people are probably surprised when they see ancient coins selling for anywhere from $.50 -$4.00ea. and maybe a little confused.i have purchased coins from a few of these sellers and have come to realize that most if not all of these sellers are buying large amounts of these coins from european suppliers and then reselling them on ebay in dutch auctions.most of these sellers will say they have had people find silver and gold coins in thier lots.not only is this not true i feel it borders an "item significantly not as described" violation.(IN MY OPINION)

however interesting and adventerous the hobby of cleaning these little pieces of ancient history may be there is an equal amount of frustration when trying to build a collection. when doing so with the uncleaned treasure hunt auctions consider the following:

1:the people diging these coins out of the ground are mostly poor european farmers who wander the countryside with metal detectors.when they find a stash of coins they will be the 1st to remove the "treasure" from the pile,gold dosnt tarnish or corrode and sticks out like a sore thumb among copper and bronze coins.

2:gold and silver are climbing in value everyday,these folks are not going to let too many of these slip through thier fingers when they have a family to feed.

3:sellers know more than anyone that the hobby is growing and as we all know from the oil wars when a commodity is in high demand and short supply the price goes up,up,up.here we have the second "finger in the pie"  these folks are going to further filter the pile by removing the coins that have a lot of detail or appear to be of rare type.most,not all,but most of theses sellers are stockpiling these coins in hopes that the demand will rise(and the value)at which time i think we will se less and less of the 'treasure hunt"auctions and more of the precleaned individual coins

4:the prices for these coins with s.& h. will make a decent lot of 10 coins cost over $20 and sometimes $30-$40 for "premiums"(3.25-3.75 ea)you may be surprised to know that there are some late empire coins that are EXTREMELY common,i.e. constantine era coins and those with a wreath reverse.it is these later coins that comprise most of the "premium lots"dont think that a seller will give you a readable coin of say NERO , CALIGULA,HADRIAN ,NERVA  ect.these will be pulled as they are worth well more than $3-4ea.

you are more likely to get a bunch of coins of constantiusII, constans,theodosius,and a few constantine the great coins that will more than likely have some problems like corrosion or be broken or holed. now, if you buy a bunch of uncleaned coins and spend say $60 on coins sold @ $1.75 ea with shipping  you will get maybe 30 coins,once you get them you will have to clean them which will take a considerable amount of time and effort,not to mention you gotta buy the supplies(brushes chemicals dental picks,maybe an electrolisis machine,books and on and on and on) after all this time and effort it may be possible to be the proud owner of 5-6 good coins and a pile of ancient scrap metal.not to say this will always happen but it is more than likely to.the "good ones" will more than likely be of the same emperor and probably the rest will have 1 good side and the other side be smooth or corroded.kinda frustrating to say the least.

these people may not even know it but they are hurting the market by turning people away from the hobby thinking its a scam.which in a way it is .heres an example of how the "market " works: I the seller get say 1000-5000 coins from europe or wherever take out all the high grade coins for my personal collection ,i enjoy the hobby too ya know,the rest of the bunch are either coins i already have numerous examples of or are not the quality i keep in my collection.it is these remaining coins that will get sorted by size and grade to be sold in dutch auctions or "treasure hunts"these were bought by me for (and this is a high end estimate) probably a dollar a piece,probably less depending on the size lot i bought.if out of 1000 i keep 100-150  i can sell the remaining 850-900 coins as "UNCLEANED ROMAN COINS ,GOLD AND SILVER FOUND" for say $1.25 ea+shipping. after that i can buy 1000 more and do the same thing not only building a nice collection for free but making money doing it.BEWARE any seller of ancient coins that sells uncleaned coins AND cleaned attributed coins cause you can bet they were part of the lot being sold as unsearched and uncleaned.

it is therefor not economicaly efficent to build a collection from these auctions,and my advise would be to buy individual coins that you can see what your getting,they sell from $10 and up ea. but will be in far better condition than the others.the only benefit i can see in buying the uncleaned coins is that you are far less likely to get fake coins,which are out there.if you want a silver or gold roman coin do a search for them and when you see how much the average price is ask yourself how likely it is that you will get one for a dollar or two.

i have also read on the net that alot of people in europe are now unwilling to look for these stashes as some have been killed when thier metal detectors find unspent ordinance like land mines left over from WWII or whatever other war ,europe has been a battlefield since the beginning of time.and some contries are trying to ban the export of these relics.

from my experiences the best way to enjoy the hobby is to buy what you can see  here are a few  sellers of individual ancient coins  i have bought from them and they have some real nice ones,fast secure shipping and professional,knowledgable people running the stores:

silenoscoins

cameleoncoins

evenmoregreatstuff

i will add more as i find them but silenos is where i do most of my bidding personaly i think they are the best seller of ancient coins on ebay