Tips for purchasing Uncleaned Coins

[Run]

I am new to this hobby as all of us were at one time.  With that said I have purchased over a 150 uncleaned coins from 7 different vendors. My result thus far 85 % unidentifiable not unattributable you cant tell its a coin of anything except it is round. With thas said I must be doing something wrong in my selections or this is approch is a complete waste of time and effort.  Sure they have not been sitting months in there DW or gringotts solution but during this process I also bought a 5X10X15X30 Stereo microscope.

Said microscope arrived today. I began by looking at every single coin I had purchased and it really doesent take an expert to see there was nothing too see. Many of them are so badly coroded you could soke them for a lifetime and still get the same results.  I have bought from several vendors who guaranted no slugs apparently they made little to no effort to actually look at what they were selling.

So please enlighten me to how so many of you seem to get attributable coins from these lots.

This is in no way calling out any vendor from which I may have purchased coins.
There were a few exceptions.

This is only intended to enlighten myself and anyone else who may read it.

[Circus_Maximus]

It is not as difficult as your experience has gone so far - patience is the key really and that is said on every list of instructions that tell you how to clean. I do find it hard to believe that out of one fifty you have nothing.


- read all of the posts on the uncleaned discussion threads

- shop around and look for coins that show the actuals you will be purchasing

- pay a little more like someone said below

- find small lots where the seller may have found the coins. i.e. with a  metal detector

- try different methods of cleaning

- more later . ....

[jon gress]

I have never been disappointed with uncleaned coins from Forvm; they are consistently top-notch .  There are some active members of this board that also sell some wonderful uncleaned coins. 
I would say the number one thing to remember is that you get what you pay for.

[bruce61813]

For ancient uncleaned coins, you pay for what you get. It is a fact of life, you may protest at paying $3 to $4 per uncleaned coins from good dealers, but look at their economics.

Say they buy 1000 at $0.70 each [these days that may be a real number]

Possibly 50% are totally trash, so the per coin is $1.40

of those 500 , maybe 20% are really good and might make Premium,
so the cost for those is about $2.50 to start, so to make any profit, the dealer need to
get about $3.50, so buying premium coins from good dealers is not the rip-off it looks like.
If you don't believe me, buy 250 real dirt covered crusties and see what you get.

Bruce

[Joe Sermarini]

Uncleaned coins are a cheap way to start when you have just developed an interest in classical numismatics.  They slow the new collector down so they don't blow all their money on mistakes before they know what they are doing!  The actual cleaning process can be fun for most people.  Attribution of uncleaned coins is fun and a great learning experience.  If you buy uncleaned coins, you should buy them for the experience itself, not just the final results. 

Uncleaned coins are not the way to build a nice collection of coins.  Even most of the attributable coins will be lower grade.  Most of the nicer coins will be the most common types.  These days most coins are cleaned by the finders or the wholesalers.   They look at the coins and decide which ones to clean and which ones not to clean.  They base their decision on maximizing profit.  So, uncleaned coins are coins they believe they can sell for more money or faster money uncleaned than cleaned.  If they have a lot of nicer coins and not enough time to clean them, we uncleaned sellers and buyers might get lucky.  If the finds are slow, they probably clean everything but the worst junk. 

We like to say the coins you get will be worth about what you paid.  So if you buy 10 uncleaned for $3 each and get 3 coins worth $10 each retail and seven slugs, you have received coins worth what you paid.  That assumes you don't destroy them with your cleaning efforts or that you were not unlucky.  Also, keep in mind most $10 retail coins are not so great.   Of course every once in a while you might get a rare AE 4 or something worth more. 

Buy uncleaned for the experience, not the result. 

[nugget]

G'Day all,I've been buying unclean coins for 2 years now and In lots of 30 to 70 coins at a time,a lot of the coins were worn so badly I couldn't tell what they were and also I did suff up a few when I started to clean them at first (no patients),after months of hard work and a few years of buying the total value of all the coins including the coins brought cleaned and uncleaned totals about $18,500 across the counter so in the long run It's worth buying uncleaned coins and thanks Joe for your help in the past.Regards Harry.

[Scotvs Capitis]

I buy uncleaned coins just for the fun of cleaning, very rarely will there be anything in there to make a solid collection unless you collect common late bronzes (nothing wrong with that, its a very large field and very affordable), but even then the success rate will be such that the same money invested in single, attributed coins will produce a nicer collection.

Cleaning coins is fun though, and if you expect a high slug/junk rate, you can enjoy the hobby for what it is. CHeck out my blog, I have a lot of uncleaned articles, a how to, and a survey of my 2006 uncleaned coin results. The survey is here:
http://scotvscapitis.blogspot.com/2006/12/2006-uncleaned-coin-statistics-and.html

[Robert_Brenchley]

Cleaning coins can either be fun or frustration depending on what you end up with! I don't buy large lots any more, but quite often I get single coins or small lots which need a god clean.

[fordicus]

For ancient uncleaned coins, you pay for what you get. It is a fact of life, you may protest at paying $3 to $4 per uncleaned coins from good dealers, but look at their economics.

Say they buy 1000 at $0.70 each [these days that may be a real number]

Possibly 50% are totally trash, so the per coin is $1.40

of those 500 , maybe 20% are really good and might make Premium,
so the cost for those is about $2.50 to start, so to make any profit, the dealer need to
get about $3.50, so buying premium coins from good dealers is not the rip-off it looks like.
If you don't believe me, buy 250 real dirt covered crusties and see what you get.

Bruce

I absolutely agree with bruce's post. When I started I always stayed under $2 per coin and the old motto of "you get what you pay for" is absolutely true. I finally got fed up with the slug rate and moved up to buying premium uncleaned coins from different dealers and it made a world of difference. I started by ordering small lots of premium uncleans from different dealers, then compared the coins based on price and how they turned out (cleaning wise and rarity). I've ended up with a group of 4-5 sellers who consistently provide quality coins that are not much more than my original $2/coin limit (FORVM INCLUDED  ).

Keep in mind though that over time, quality and such will change with any dealer as they get new shipments from their suppliers.