Numismatic and History Discussion Forums > Uncleaned Ancient Coin Discussion Forum

Are uncleaned coin lots a thing of the past?

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Michael M20:
I have purchased uncleaned lots from sellers across the spectrum of recommended sellers and eBay. I took a picture of my success, if you can call it that. Is this ratio normal?

SC:
Welcome to the forum Michael.  I hope you stick with the hobby and don't give up due to bad experiences with uncleaned coins.

Your image is too small and dark for me to tell what is going on with your lot, but I will repeat what you can find others saying in other postings.

Uncleaned coins do seem harder to come by in quality these days.  Much of what is referred to as uncleaned coins are really not.  Or at least they are partially cleaned coins. 

Recently I have seen a lot of people with "uncleaned lots" that are either coins that have been hasty and poorly cleaned - usually chemically - or that are really culls - crusties, slugs and/or powdery surfaces.

I don't really know why this is.  Even in the good old days with coins that were truly uncleaned most did not yield treasures.  That means that if it was as simple as the cleaning is now being done in the supply chain we would expect to see large lots of low quality but cleaned coins.  I am not seeing those.  So what is happening?  Far fewer uncleaned coins to start with or those that are cleaned and are not worth individual sale are being stockpiled???

Shawn

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