Attention! NEW Coin Cleaning Contest Starting!!!!
Win the Golden Toothbrush!!!!February 16, 2002
The 2nd Annual Coin Cleaning Contest is over and the results are available here! Congratulations to the winners, who now get two choose their prizes in order of placement.April 10, 2002
The Ancient Coin Cleaning Contest is now open!!!. Due to start May 1, 2002, participants will buy a group of uncleaned coins and two months later be judged on their efforts. BUT. You have to be a member of either the Yahoo UncleanedCoin group or the Yahoo UncleanedAncientCoin group to participate. So join, already!! The worst you can do out of this is receive some nice coins for your money.The rules and contest joining info are --> here.
If your experience with a vendor differs from mine, please let me know. I would like to post the experiences of others too. If it appears that I am getting 'salted', unrepresentative lots we can run an anonymous test. I'll pay you for a lot which you send to me unopened. Let's keep 'em honest and find out who really has the best coins!
BTW, from the feedback I've received so far (and thank you all for it,) my results are similar to what others are getting.
Note on statistics;
I started using the percentage of coins attributed as a measurement. That has become unfair since that depends on my skill and interests. So, I'm instituting the "keeper", the official unit of measurement of ancient coins cleaned by semi-skilled amateurs. Byzantines, Greek, Roman Provincials and Islamics all count as keepers if I feel a knowledgeable source could ID them.
Note on roughly cleaned coins;
You may notice that many of the coins classed as non-keepers have been treated rather roughly. I start out gentle, with olive oil for at least a month, but after that I begin zapping the worst coins with electrolysis to make sure that there is nothing there. Generally, the more coins in a lot that have been zapped, the worse the lot. I treat the nicely patinaed coins with the respect they deserve - the ancient slugs I torture until they cry uncle. Link to cleaning suggestions
May 28, 2000 - Lot Value estimation added
I don't do this hoping for an increase in my investment - I don't encourage anyone else to either. But the value of the coins in a lot is the best estimation of the quality of the coins. I have therefore added my estimation of what the lot would bring on eBay if resold. I started with Sear's valuations and checked them against eBay and windwinds.com.
page modified March 10, 2002