The October 29 episode of "Castle" on ABC had a plot that involved discovery of a hoard of 1792 half dismes. They showed a bucket of the coins and the suggestion that there were a thousand of them. There was the comment that one recently sold for $1.5 million dollars.

The addition of a thousand Mint State coins would probably depress the market. Dumping a thousand replicas could also depress the market.

I attempted to contact ABC Television and got a form letter non-response. I wonder if any of our E-Sylum readers has an inside connection with ABC and can get some answers. Where did they acquire the copies? How many did they have? What happened to the copies after producing the show?

I know it is currently possible to order replicas from China and perhaps this is what they did. These replicas are an obvious problem today. If there are another thousand dumped on the market, it will continue to cause problems for generations into the future.

To watch Castle episodes online, see:abc.go.com/shows/castle