Absolutely fascinating story, than so much for sharing. A friend sent me a link here, glad he did!
Cool piece of Bitcoin history revealed in the thread.
Here's hoping to success!

So here's an idea as far as the need to be physically next to the coins - what if they have embedded NFT chips? You my be able to tap your NFC enabled phone over the coins to see if anything registers. Also loo for invisible inks, blacklight, etc..