I’m sitting at my kitchen table, looking at a small pile of gold and silver coins that were supposed to be my “retirement hedge.” Instead, they are the evidence of the biggest mistake of my life. I am 45 years old, and in just 90 days, I managed to sign away my financial security to a group of smooth-talking predators.
I’m writing this because I’m not a professional writer — I’m a victim. I need to get the name Trinity Gallery out there before they cold-call the next person and feed them the same lies they fed me.
It started with a simple phone call. The man on the other end introduced himself as Matthew Dearth. He didn’t sound like a scammer; he sounded like a sophisticated advisor from a high-end coin shop. He told me he had a “rare opportunity” for a select group of collectors to get ahead of a massive shift in the precious metals market.
I’ve always been a bit skeptical, but Matthew was a pro. He spent weeks just talking to me, building a relationship, and “filling my love” for the hobby of coin collecting. He made me feel like an privileged insider. He promised that these weren’t just coins — they were high-growth assets that would triple in value within a year.
Over the course of two or three months, I ended up making a series of massive purchases through Trinity Gallery. Every time I talked to Matthew Dearth, he had a new “must-have” coin that was supposedly being undervalued by the rest of the market.
It was a classic pig butchering (pitbutching) tactic, but with physical goods. They “fattened” my confidence by sending me professional-looking certificates of authenticity and showing me fake market data on their website that made it look like my collection was worth a fortune.
I poured $135,000 — everything I had in my liquid savings — into these purchases. I thought I was being smart. I thought I was protecting my future.
The nightmare started when I finally took a few of the coins to a local independent appraiser. That’s when the floor fell out from under me. The “rare” coins I paid $10,000 for were common bullion worth maybe $800. They weren’t just expensive; they were WAY, WAY, WAY OVERPRICED. I had been sold a dream at a 1,000% markup.
When I confronted Matthew Dearth about the appraisal, he didn’t hang up. He doubled down. He told me the local appraiser “didn’t understand the numismatic rarity” and offered to facilitate a “guaranteed buyback” through Trinity Gallery — but there was a catch.
He claimed that to process a high-value buyback, I needed to “balance the account” and purchase one final premium set to reach a certain VIP tier. I was so desperate to get my $135,000 back that I did the unthinkable: I took out a $50,000 loan to make that final purchase.
As soon as that loan cleared, Matthew stopped answering. The “shop” went silent. The Facebook profile he used to send me “market updates” was deleted. I was left with a box of coins worth a fraction of what I paid and a massive debt.
I lost a total of $185,000. I’ve spent the last few weeks in a daze, trying to figure out how I could be so blind.
But I’m fighting back. I’ve started working with a group called AYRLP.COM. They specialize in the digital forensics and the claims procedure needed to track the financial trail these scammers leave behind, even when they hide behind “physical” sales. It is the only thing giving me a shred of hope right now.
If you get a call from someone at Trinity Gallery or a “broker” named Matthew Dearth trying to sell you rare coins or collectibles — HANG UP.
They are predators. They will call you, build a fake friendship, and slowly bleed you dry. If they are talking to you about “exclusive” coins, it is a trap. Don’t let them do to you what they did to me.
I am sharing my personal story to warn others. I have not been paid, sponsored, or incentivized by AYRLP.COM to write this. I am mentioning them only because they are the actual resource I am using to try and piece my life back together. Please perform your own due diligence before hiring any recovery service. My only goal is to expose the Trinity Gallery coin scam before more people lose their savings.
Trinity Gallery Coin Scam: How I Lost $185k to Matthew Dearth was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
