This is the best example I've seen so far of how misleading and stupid those coin ID apps can be

From a thread posted yesterday.

Coinsnap identified a metal slug (a knockout disc from an electrical junction box) as an 1803 Netherlands East Indies 8-stuivers piece.

And "appraised" it for $50-100.

Despite the piece of junk metal being entirely featureless. Makes me wonder what the app might've said about a washer. Or an Oreo cookie.









Somebody needs to warn the uninitiated not to trust these apps.

I recently saw an ad for one, which showed someone using their app to scan a circulated 1967 quarter, which was well worn- perhaps Fine to VF. A piece of face-value pocket change, in other words. Not even a nice example. The demo showed the app appraising that coin for something like $400, and then it showed the user clicking a "sell" button, and then presto! A little checkmark appeared, as the app instantly reported it sold! All complete rubbish. And that was in the demo they used to advertise the app!

That ad went beyond ridiculousness and well into outright lies-and-fraud territory, if you ask me. Now, I don't remember which app I saw the ad for, or if that one was the same Coinsnap app that's mentioned in the example linked above (I don't think so)- but so far all of the demos of these apps that I've seen have been ridiculous. And the real-life example above only bears that out.

Now, I'm sure this AI stuff will have some useful numismatic research applications in the future. (And maybe it does already, in certain other areas.)

But I'm equally certain that it's not even remotely close to being there yet.

Talk about half-baked technology! Sheesh.

 

Hm, yeah, that totally looks like the knockout slug from an electrical box! ROFL