what is it

noknowledge

Hey all I'm clueless to anything about coins, never been on a coin forum so forgive me if I do anything wrong.

Anyways I got a bag of old coins when my great grandmother died many years ago and I just now looked through them. I have tons all in different condition and they are all foreign I think. I wanted to know if anyone knew what they were, if they are worth keeping or should I just throw them out. I took a pic of a couple, theres tons more they are all different and all covered in dirt. Only ones I know are old veitnamese coins from 18 something.





Any help is greatly appreciated!

coachleonard

Throw them out?? NOOOOOOOOOO!!! They may not have huge monetary value (look to be worth $15-$25 each) but they have a LOT of
historical value. Anway, from top to bottom left to right, my take is 1. 3rd Century A.D Roman Colonial bronze-- but can't tell much more since I can't see what's on the front 2. 3rd Century A.D Roman Antonii (most common roman coin of that century) that appears to be of Gallenius 253-68 A.D 3. & 4: Both are Byzantine Empire bronze follis coins, struck about 980-1070 A.d, which makes them more medieval than ancient, though Byzantine coins are most often classified under "ancients". All are in pretty nice circulated shape

1jester

Nice looking coins, and a warm welcome to the forum, noknowledge! I hope you stick around!

lordmarcovan

I'll save you the trouble of throwing them out. Throw them into an envelope and mail them to me. I'll even reimburse your shipping fees.

Blackhawk

Those are some neat oldies! The ones on the string are called cash coins and are from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, etc. If you can take photos of both sides of them, there are folks on the board who can actually read the characters on them (which surprised the heck out of me when I first got some)...lol.

ColinCMR

looks like a fun group to investigate if you like that sort of thing. You can check out books in your library or local bookstore. If you want opinions on specific books to check out ask away. there's also tons of different ways to store the coins if you want to preserve them, some ways are cheap and some expensive and some methods are not very good for coins. oh, and you probably should not clean them, cleaning is usually really bad for coins.

Sapyx

Those coins in the pics certainly don't need any more cleaning - they're fine the way they are.

Pic 1 top left: Byzantine, follis (large M type), can't quite make out the mintmark from the pic - could be KAR (Cathage) or KZ? (Cyzicus). We'd need to see the other side to guess at the emperor.

Top right: base-silver antoninianus of emperor Claudius II (an IMP CLAVDIVS AVG type), 268-270 AD. We'd need to see the other side to pick the exact type, but unless it's a scarce one, coins like this do normally go for around $15-$25.

Bottom two are later Byzantine, as has been stated.

The "Chinese ones" are indeed Vietnamese, 10 van coins from the French Protectorate of Annam, 1888-1907. They may or may not be genuine (a bundle of coins tied up with a red cord is a typical Chinese "good luck" piece), but Annamese cash coins are typically green like that.

noknowledge

Wow thanks for your help everyone! I didn't expect such an involved response! I will take some more pics of what I have and of both sides. Maybe unload some of them on you all since I'm not really into them and they'd probably make one of you all more happy then me sitting in a bag in my safe. Thanks again.