Are Uncleaned Roman Coins Genuine?

Roman coins have become popular amongst coin collectors due to the large diversity of coins available featuring famous emperors and the art and culture of the period in which they were minted. Uncleaned Roman Coins have become particularly popular as they are usually very cheap to collect and collectors often believe that there is a chance that one of these coins will turn out to be an ancient Gold coin. There are many uncleaned Roman coins for sale on auction sites such as eBay but how can you be sure they are genuine?

A question many coin collectors ask is how can you be sure that Roman coins are real if it is difficult to make out much detail on coins that have been heavily worn and eroded over the centuries.  The answer is that most are indeed genuine and have been dug out of the ground usually in and around Europe.

While most dealers selling uncleaned Roman coins are honest and reliable, some dealers will exaggerate or even lie about the value of their collection. These dealers will often claim that gold has been found in their lot or that their lot may contain gold coins. However unless the dealer has  added some small gold coins to their lot themselves, it is highly unlikely that such Gold coins will exist in a collection going for less than $100. This is because they have often gone through a chain of up to four or five people before you the consumer purchases them. Firstly the famer who digs them out of the ground, then the local profiteer who buys them, then there is sometimes a middle man who buys them from the profiteer, and then the dealer who buys the lot from the middle man and then finally you. Somewhere down that chain the coins will be cherry picked and sorted to filter out quality coins such as gold coins.

While I believe uncleaned coins can be fun and interesting to collect my suggestion would be not to purchase uncleaned coins from dealers claiming that their lot could contain gold. Also be wary of sellers that state that rare finds have been found in their lots as this is highly unlikely.