A NOTE ON GOLD FOUND DEALERS
If one peruses Ebay for uncleaned coins, one is very likely to stumble across lots declaring Gold Found!
This is a scam, plain and simple. You won't find gold coins in uncleaned lots. Even "unsorted" coins will not have gold coins contained within. They have been sorted 3 or 4 times, most likely, by the finders and the middlemen, well before they end up on the retail market.
Does it ever, ever happen? Most likely. But you have the same odds of winning the lottery.
Gold is a noble metal, and will come out of the ground much as it looked like when it went into the ground. Thus, even a three year old would recognize a gold coin. The finders and middlemen might not be very knowledgable when it comes to attributing Roman coins, but they quite well know when they find a gold coin.
Most gold found dealers will use any or all of the following gimmicks:
1) Shill bid/buy his own coins, and leave feedback as another user
2) Throw in a 17th to 19th century Indian Fanam occasionally. These can be found for sale in bulk for around $15 or less. They are quite plentiful, not by any means ancient, and tiny! You think AE4's and 5's are tiny, wait until you see one of these.
3) Polish up a brass coin similar to the scan below. Although the scan doesn't show it too well, in hand it looks just like gold. Someone just starting out, buying their first or second batch of coins, could very well believe that the otherwise uncollectable brass coin was indeed gold.
Be wary of any offer that proclaims gold found.
