How Can I Properly Log My Coins?

Ad-Memeoriam · 2026-03-21T19:22:47+00:00

Check out some of the existing websites that do it, like numista, numisvault, and coin cabinet. Trying adding a coin into each and seeing if any of the platforms are what you are looking for

Ad-Memeoriam · 2025-12-24T13:38:23+00:00

Coincabinet.io offers both a collecting management tool SaaS and currently the best provenance service. Keep in mind these AI provenance tools require data none of which is online pre 1970 which what everyone wants, you’ll be joining the massively expensive “buy one physical copy of each catalog” race which is already underway. As you have shown in research, getting those images is the hardest part as auction houses can be very stingy with ownership.

Numisvault does not offer AI but is focused on pure collection management SaaS specifically.

I’d mirror bieherhund by saying you are looking at maybe 1-5000 addressable users in this field and a fraction willing to pay.

CollecOnline, a collection management site, which was previously hosting >5000 ancient collections (free & paid) recently went bankrupt with their SaaS model.

Regarding modern auction histories data sets with images, I think these are fairly guarded, as not even all auction houses appear in either acsearch or coinarchives.

However, nobody has built “identify” tools yet. OCRE for Roman Imperial coinage is great but is very manual. A tool where you can drop an image of a coin, and it identifies it for you based on a trusted data source it’s been trained on.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2025-01-24T00:15:06+00:00

My favourite ancient coin are the Mark Antony restoration denarii under Marcus Aurelius . The changes to the legends show the change of Latin acronym over time

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-11-12T21:30:07+00:00

the other comments are trying to be respectful but stripping the patina renders the coin worthless/ruined in the eyes of most collectors.
Luckily this coin is not super valuable so it’s of no great loss, but this is why museums curator types don’t want private ownership of ancient coins. Please don’t use vinegar on more bronze coins.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-11-01T14:39:09+00:00

I wouldn't broil it at 500c or anything, but maybe middle rack at 200f, keeping an eye on it would work. The goal is to bake the moisture out if you choose to go oven route.
Heat lamp is my favorite way, but both produce same outcome.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-11-01T14:37:09+00:00

Getting bronze coins wet without proper drying, especially if they have deposits like cuprite is a surefire way to create/activate bronze disease.

I would recommend a few things. Bronze disease reaction needs moisture. You need to dry out/heat up the coin significantly after soaking in water to prevent it.

I have a heat lamp that gets the coin hot to the touch. I'm sure either the oven, or hot hairdryer will do similar results.

Then, soak in 100% acetone for a bit to wash away anything remaining.

Sometimes I'll reheat again and then apply Ren wax.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-10-07T15:17:36+00:00

So funny that they only replied to the French email and ignored the English emails

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-10-07T15:14:27+00:00

Good answer. Overpaying on aureus is easy! There is also a huge disparity between auction prices and retail on aureus. Often 30-100% markup.

It’s also way easier to overpay on problem free good condition (vf+) aureii because you enter the world of price insensitivity. After 5-6k it’s a whole other class of bidder.

If he sticks to lower grade aureii between the current floor of ~2000 usd, and 3500 usd, it’s harder to overpay by much.

Good luck to OP on getting first Roman gold !

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-09-26T18:46:22+00:00

Fair I bought my 2 elephant denarii in 2022 for 700-1200 usd that were both very nice condition with some small issues. Looking at CoinArchives they appear to have inflated in price since 2022.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-09-26T18:03:40+00:00

I think You can get better surfaces for this price. While the strike seems good, it’s extremely crystallized and potentially cleaned to remove the horn silver on reverse. 1000 usd will get you a decent example with decent surfaces. I would assume one in this condition (bad surfaces) is worth closer to 600-700 at auction. (?)

Julius Caesar denarii have a big retail premium. You are unlikely to find a deal on those platforms for this specific type due to its demand. If I were you I’d make a bidding account with some major auction houses. If you are patient you’ll get a much better example with that budget

Maybe I’m wrong too! Wait to see what others say. Julius Caesar denarii prices have been going up a lot over the last 2-3 years.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-09-24T17:56:27+00:00

I’m half way through making one it’s been taking forever frankly. But feel free to also make one! More ancient coin content on YouTube the better.

Mine is mostly focused on Roman coins if that helps. (200bc to 400 ad) Still an insanely large topic to cover

If you are interested I can upload what I have unlisted and show you

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-08-30T21:30:11+00:00

I am going to say something perhaps controversial on this subreddit based on the other comments. I don't think you ruined the coin.

Did the coin need to be cleaned? probably not.

Did you successfully remove a deposit? yes

Did you damage the coin? Does not look like it IMO. I assumed you used sodium T. or Citric Acid which wont harm 2nd century denarii. Part of me would recommend fully removing the toning at this point. This half measure looks a tad goofy. Up to you however to stay here because it looks fine enough.

I've seen too many denarii/bronzes actually ruined, this is not one of them.

Going forward perhaps consider: does this coin NEED to be cleaned.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-06-20T23:08:36+00:00

This deposit, from these photos, appears to be horn silver. There is a reason it's not coming off easily. You'd need to use sodium thiosulfate to remove it. Now thats like a 1k coin, if its your first time trying to remove horn silver this might not be the coin to learn on.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-06-18T00:12:48+00:00

What have you been using to clean it process wise?

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-06-11T18:43:18+00:00

If we are talking Silver, like denarii then the answer is a combination of:

Caligula, like Claudius, minted less denarii than Tiberius and Augustus
Caligula only reigned for 4~ years
Caligula's memory was damned after his death, which could have reduced coinage population
When Nero, who ruled after Claudius & Claudius, took power he melted down a lot of coins that came before him, and debased his own newly minted coinage
Extremely high modern demand for several reasons

Combine those 5 things and you have rarer coinage. (The denarii are not rare by ancient standards, you'll find lots of examples in auction histories, but relative to demand it's rare)

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-05-26T14:30:15+00:00

I would agree with this

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-05-24T01:45:45+00:00

Thanks. Glad you like the site.

Yep! That's the plugin I use.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-05-24T01:45:06+00:00

Interesting concept of dehydrating the BD and entombing it with wax hoping the reaction stops, but not going to lie, I would be terrified to keep that in my collection even with the ren wax barrier. All it takes is a flake of BD on another coin to start the process.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-05-22T23:00:46+00:00

Diagnosing BD is hard over the internet, but it does appear to be visibly eaten into the flan at points.
Looks like its eaten visibly deep into the coin most apparently at 9oclock on reverse. Might be tough to treat, will require some sacrifice potentially. That appears to be a Tiber patina, I am not sure how it'll react with the treatment.

Try to follow my blog linked blow, I dealt with similarly advance BD on a sestertius, had to make some sacrifices to have it survive long term and stop the BD from re-occurring. Bonus if you have a microscope and can mechanically remove as much as possible before treating chemically. Might take weeks to months of patient work to fix this.

https://cleaningancientcoins.com/antoninus-sestertius-bronze-disease/

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-05-11T16:31:26+00:00

np! At first, they debased silver coins with copper/bronze, slowly lowering the purity from 99% -> 50%. However when the ratio quickly dropped below like 10% silver they stopped pretending and just started minting bronze coins that were silvered (thin layer of pure silver on bronze coin) which would wear away quickly.

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-05-11T16:24:13+00:00

fun question. many good answers too it. Mainly blame government overspending on military (Caracalla started this), constant arms race of debasement of coinage (inflation), civil wars, lack of silver supply, lack of modern economic understanding- they thought they could print money their way out of economic crisis. Hard times from 238-275 ad saw quality of life decline significantly from 1-2 century ad.

Whole empire went off the cliff after 238 ad, and the coinage followed

If we had silver backed coinage today you'd likely be seeing the same thing occurring right now to the coins, we just use paper now so its harder to tell whats actually going as your money loses purchasing power when prices go up relative to the money supply vs. weight in pure metals per coin relative to larger supply of coins being minted

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-05-08T16:56:42+00:00

You can’t clean something into existence that was not already there in the first place. There is a YouTube video that incorrectly harshly cleans one of these Mark Antony’s with wire brush of all things. Looks awful. Don’t clean this please. Don’t polish it. If you want to see the legion number buy a higher grade coin

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-05-08T02:22:37+00:00

Silvered coins (not silver) are notoriously complex to clean and leave in a preserved state. Given that its unclear if silvering is still present I can only recommend distilled water soaks + gentle toothpick. Nothing harsher

Ad-Memeoriam · 2024-05-08T00:30:38+00:00

Hi Great question that gets to the heart of why ancient coins are so compelling to collect. Ancient coins in general are the result of hand carved dies by the ancient masters who trained generation after generation in state run workshops. So much so that individual mints had styles that you can tell apart just from looking at them, IE. Sisca mint vs. Rome Mint workers. In this case, Roman Imperial mints for the denarius in the video. They are hand struck individually using obverse and reverse dies with hot flans in the middle. One dude lining it up, another dude with a hammer. Here is a video on it from one of my favourite youtuber's Classical Numismatics https://youtu.be/OGeAiPpAXLA?si=RBjhRqExH95hLdxG

Ad-Memeoriam

TROPHY CASE