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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 31, 2025, Article 27

Here are some additional items in the media this week that may be of interest. -Editor

Aaron Oppenheim passed along this short article about the Seaton Hoard, first discussed back in 2014. Thanks. -Editor

In an extraordinary stroke of luck and persistence, Laurence Egerton, a 51-year-old amateur metal detectorist, made one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in British history: a massive hoard of Roman coins buried for centuries beneath the earth near Seaton, East Devon.

While exploring the area with his metal detector, Egerton picked up strong signals from the ground. After a bit of careful digging, he uncovered a large buried ceramic pot—packed to the brim with gold and silver Roman coins. The find turned out to be one of the largest Roman coin hoards ever discovered in the UK, containing over 22,000 coins dating from the late 3rd century AD, during the reign of emperors such as Carausius and Allectus.

Andrew Crellin of Sterling & Currency published an article this week on his learning experience following his unknowing purchase of a counterfeit error coin. -Editor

Even though we spend millions of dollars a year on our inventory, it isn't often that I get caught out buying something that is completely without value. When I do, though, it's generally because of my own hubris or lack of attention to a minor but important detail.

Getting back to the story from the deceased estate, one of the coins included was a double-struck 2 dollar coin from 2009. I could see it was on an auction card from a trusted source, so I had no reason to think it wasn't genuine. I did some research online and could see similar coins either were or had been offered by other dealers around the country, all at varying prices. I appraised the retail value of the coin, set a buy price for it and moved onto the next coin.

We were successful in tendering for the collection, so we posted them all for sale on our website. This particular 2 dollar coin was sold to a client out of state who is into such things, he submitted it to PCGS for authentication. I got a surprise about 6 months later when he said that it had been designated by PCGS as having been struck with counterfeit dies - the coin itself was genuine, but the second strike wasn't.

I immediately offered a full refund, and awaited the arrival of the coin in the mail.

Another article by Andrew Crellin discusses how people (if only they would bother) could easily tell whether a claim about a coin's value is BS or not. -Editor

Two times this past week, I've been contacted by folks who had questions about information they'd seen online about coins. Two times this week, I had to point out that there's a lot of crap on the internet!

The first was from one of the instructors at my gym - he said his daughter had asked him if her coins were worth a lot of money. The poor kid had been given a commemorative 20c and 50c by the tooth fairy and decided to look them up online. She saw one of them being advertised for $800,000, and the other was $3,000! One was a nonsensical YouTube video, the other was an equally nonsensical eBay listing. That Dad then had to share with his daughter that not everything we see on the internet is true - heavy stuff for a 5-year-old!

The second was from a grown man who lumbered into our office yammering about his Malaysian 20 sen coin. I grabbed out our plastic container of Malaysian loose change and showed him one of the same date and denomination, only for him to boldly declare, "No, MINE is the valuable one!"

When I asked him why he thought that was the case, he said "Because I saw it online."

I asked him if he could show me (big mistake) he then showed me a movie he'd recorded with his phone of a YouTube video on his computer. Now this Youtube video showed just a normal Malaysian 20 sen and had a voiceover that was clearly an AI-generated robotic voice.

What I couldn't get my new friend to understand is that the internet is full of exaggerated or outright false claims about coin values. (Just as it is about every other subject under the sun). Whether it's an inflated eBay listing, a misleading video on YouTube, or clickbait headlines on search engines, navigating truthful information is tricky. These traps can lead to people wasting endless hours chasing a sale or, worse, making decisions based on false data. Nobody wants to waste their time—or their money—on a wild goose chase.

This article is an attempt to help. By introducing a simple, two-step verification approach inspired by tried-and-true military intelligence methods, you will learn how to efficiently determine whether a claim about a coin's value is BS or not.