While that is a really, really cool find for anyone to make. their estimate of value was -- let's say -- a little bit off. That is an Oak Tree Threepence (Noe-23, Salmon 1-A), considered to be rarity-6.

A coin in that condition is worth maybe $10,000 to $20,000, depending on what it looks like after it is conserved. Their estimate of $1,700,000 is a tad bit high, unfortunately.

While it is refreshing whenever a rare American coin surfaces overseas, the media has sure screwed up the announcement of the [Noe 23} 1652 Oak Tree threepence excavated in England and en route to the US for conservation and "cleaning".

Where they got a $1.7M estimate on the coin based on a $430K auction price of an unrelated NE shilling defies imagination. Apples and oranges. If the St James auctioneer (Steve Fenton) places such an estimate on the coin it simply will not sell.

The London news media claims a US numismatic source evaluated the coin as such. I say baloney. I've collected Massachusetts colonial silver coinage since my high school days and while I agree this 3d appears to be the finest known of its variety, it is still encrusted and should this be removed, it is still worth far less than $75K.

Hopefully in its conservation to remove the crust in the legends, they do not change the original patina.