Possible Greek-style Brass?

[Frank M]

Hello All,

I received about 40 uncleaned coins in December. After sorting out a few that could be easily cleaned. I soaked the rest in olive oil, stirring from time to time. After that I still had a good number of coins which I assumed were junk. A friend helped me clean the rest with his jewelers wheel... I know, I know.

Anyway, several of the smaller and deeply encrusted coins had a scalloped edge that I associate with Greek coinage or coins that were influenced by Greek culture. After a little attention from the wheel, lots of previously unseeable detail emerged.
Any thoughts on no. 2 or no. 7? No. 1 and no.4 look like Roman Imperials to me, but I am a novice. Some of the others look like they have Arabic script. Thanks in advance!

NOTE: no. 2 and no. 7 are noticeably paler than a typical bronze coin. It is not as clear in the photos, but you can clearly see it in person. Is it possible that they have more silver or gold in them?

[Lee S]

Well Frank,

   Im not sure about atribution, only one photo is showing to me... ( and the rule is one coin per thread...)
But I can recommend that you have a good read through the threads on the cleaning board..... If you only recieved the coins in December it is a shame that you didn't have a little more patience... some coins can take months of soaking, scrubbing and picking before becoming identifiable, and it is entierly possible that you could have saved the patina and still ID'd your coins...

   Read the cleaning board.... and accept that coin cleaning is very often a long term project.... Scrubbing back to bare metal is rarely a good idea!!

 Best wishes,

Lee.

[Frank M]

Thanks Lee, I should have cleaned up this post to direct attention to just the one coin I posted.

I have had really good luck with soaking Roman bronze coins in olive oil over the years. This recent batch just seemed to be lower quality to me and the crud on this particular coin led me to think it was unidentifiable junk. So yeah, I know I reduced the value by mechanical cleaning. But, I had gotten some nice AEs out of this same lot so I was willing to take a risk on these. My main interest is historical rather than remunerative, although I certainly don't want to damage historical artifacts. I guess we all come at ancient coins from a different angle. Thanks again for the reply and for keeping me in line

[Molinari]

Try posting one coin per thread and include obverse, reverse, and weight and diameter, if possible.  I'm sure someone can help.

No. 7 here looks like a Roman Provincial coin.  The "scalloped" coins you mention are probably Seleukid Serrated bronzes.

[Frank M]

Sorry again for botching the formatting. Here is a jpg of the obverse and reverse. The coin is 3.3g and 17mm. Thanks!

[Pekka K]

Maybe this:

http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/4/6177/

Pekka K

ps. cropped picture of your coin:

[Frank M]

Thanks Pekka! I appreciate it, and that does look pretty plausible for the reverse. I will look around and see if there is a crowned bust in any of the known obverses.

I swear, I will get the hang of this formatting. I went back in Ps and rendered out the highest res shots I could get that came in under the file size. I'll keep looking!