Clumps of dirt with detail!

[Hoot]

I was fixin' to put my clumps of dirt and ancient wads of bubblegum in some Filippo Berio olive oil (good for sauteing and grilling!), and took a quick pass at them to be sure that my supplier had not substituted pieces of construction debris for coins. Lo! and behold, three of the pieces had noticeable detail on one side and I thought that the Thing might want a gander at them before they went in the oil!

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Quite a schnoz on that one fellow!

 

Hoot

[Wihlborg]

Quite a schnoz on that one fellow!

 

Oh…that’s his nose. Thank god!

 

John

[the_Thing ®]

Howdy Hoot. I can tell you for sure that the one of the far right late Roman empire, around 400 AD. That first coin is very interesting. Looks like you could have a high quailty coin underneath the crud. I'll work on ID'ing it.

[Hoot]

Howdy Hoot. I can tell you for sure that the one of the far right late Roman empire, around 400 AD. That first coin is very interesting. Looks like you could have a high quailty coin underneath the crud. I'll work on ID'ing it.

 

Bueno! Very fun to have found these before the months-long soak. Any sense of the middle coin?

 

Hoot

[Hoot]

Oh…that’s his nose. Thank god!

 

John

 

[the_Thing ®]

Hoot, I got some opinons from one of my e-mail lists. The last one certainly is late Roman as I suspected. Here is one guys guess

 

Just guessing without seeing the reverses, but your left coin looks like a Constantine I follis, possibly from Lugdunum, based on the style. For comparison:

 

http://www.vcoins.com/beastcoins/store/catalog/Z1156.jpg

 

The middle coin is a lot more difficult, but reminds me of a small bust Constantine II.

 

http://www.vcoins.com/beastcoins/store/catalog/Z581TN.jpg

 

The right coin kind of looks like a Gratian AE4 or something, but I can't really make out any of the letters too well.

[the_Thing ®]

I disagree with him on the first one, the follis. It looks like it will be a mighty fine coin after a long soak. Pretty sure its Roman though.

[Hoot]

Excellent information Thing!

 

I do wish that the reverses were not obscured by dirt so that I might have provided those images as well. Those pieces all looked like they were in great shape, so I also think they will clean up nicely.

 

Any chance they will clean up as well as those pictured? (Not to say that there will be as much detail, just the overall appearance.)

 

 

[the_Thing ®]

Hoot, I do think a lot of them will clean up to be that nice. Actually, the incrustation helps to protect the details, like a protective barrier. The secret is removing that barrier correctly i.e. olive oil. I wouldn't be surprised if 10 of your coins would pay for your entire investment. I've even thought about buying 1000 of them myself to resale for profit.

[the_Thing ®]

Oh yea, I forgot to tell you guys. You might want to take a couple and try to clean them up with WD-40 and a rag.

[the_Thing ®]

Hoot, check out this negative image. It is a coin of Constantine, but which one, who knows....

 

[Hoot]

That is exceptionally cool work Thing. I love it!

 

Can't wait to see the coins. But, they've been dirt covered for more than a millenium, so I reckon I'll just be patient.

 

Hoot

[the_Thing ®]

Constantine had some cool coinage. He was the first Roman emperor to bring Christianity to the Roman Empire.