I know I'm late to the party, but I would like to throw my pennies worth into the discussion...
In my experiance over the last couple of years, I have found it is possible to find decent uncleaned coins out there, but it pays to be careful. I would say probably from the random sellers on
eBay I have tried, only about 1 in 3 has a decent
quality product.
It is always better to buy lots of coins where you can actually see the coins you will receive, and steer well clear of sellers with the same photo of a big pile of coins for all there different lots of 5/10/50/whatever.
The couple of excellent lots of uncleaned
Greeks I have purchased ( C.70 of my
collection of around 100 coins I have cleaned myself..) came from
Bulgaria , which is also where the worst of the coins I have bought came from!! However I have on occasion contacted the seller of the
good lots privately, and made further purchases directly.. I know this might not be strictly ethical, but how else to strike up a relationship with a dealer?
Another tip is if you live in a country where metal detecting is legal, try approaching some local clubs, some of my favourite coins have been UK metal detector finds!
I cannot say I make a profit from my coin cleaning, but I have amassed a nice ( in my opinion!)
collection of coins, and the ones I sell I save the
money towards purchasing better
quality coins, and I believe my
collection would have cost much more if I
had bought all the coins cleaned, plus I would have denied the wife the pleasure of me taking over a whole shelf in the kitchen with jars,
dental picks , my dremel and magnifying
lamp!!
Best wishes,
Lee.