#ancient coin

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Solidus with Licinia Eudoxia.

Period: Byzantine, Reign of Valentinian III

Date: A.D. 439

Mint: Ravenna

Medium: Gold

[wizard-council-museum-clerk]

I found an ancient coin on the ground today! It kept whispering at me, but I couldn't understand it. Anyone know what its saying?

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Ancient Greek Electrum Coin from Phokaia, Possibly Depicting Aphrodite, ca. 477–388 BC Berlin State Museums

The curly hair is tied up in a cloth and knotted at the front; the figure wears an earring.

[blueiscoool]

Strange Coin Used on U.K. Bus Turns Out to Be 2000-Year-Old Phoenician Artifact

The ancient coin was probably minted in what is now Spain in the first century B.C., but no one knows why it was used to pay a 1950s transport fare.

The coin's owner has honored his grandfather by donating it to a museum in Leeds.

A mysterious coin once used as bus fare in Leeds in the 1950s was identified as ancient Phoenician currency. The bronze coin dates back roughly 2,000 years to Gadir, a Carthaginian settlement in modern Cádiz. Its owner has donated the artifact to the Leeds Discovery Centre after decades puzzling over its origins.

An enigmatic coin that someone used to board a British bus seven decades ago is now entering the collection of the Leeds Discovery Centre, following the revelation that it’s a bit of 2,000 year old currency from the former Carthaginian trading settlement of Gadir, in modern-day Cádiz, Spain—one of Europe’s longest-inhabited cities, settled by Phoenicians around 1,100 B.C.E.

Seventy-seven-year old Peter Edwards has owned this coin since he was a boy. He got it from his grandfather, James Edwards, who served as a chief cashier with Leeds City Transport in the 1950s, sorting foreign and otherwise unusable tender out from bus and tram fares paid at the end of each day. Sometimes he’d give a few to his grandson, who stored every gift, including the specimen in question, in a little wooden chest.

James Edwards, former chief cashier with Leeds City Transport. 

After years and years of mystery, the younger Edwards finally looked into the coin’s history—and learned it comes from Gadir. Leeds Museums and Galleries concurs with his conclusion. Indeed, the coin’s reverse side is nearly clear, featuring worn Phoenician script reading “minted in Agadir,” positioned above two tuna fish, likely meant as an ode to the maritime city’s productive fishing industry.

The coin’s obverse, however, looks slightly less clear. It’s meant to feature a portrait of Melqart, patron deity to the Phoenician city-state of Tyre, in modern day Lebanon—of which Carthage and Gadir were closely connected colonies. Here, Melqart wears lion-skin headdress in a little impersonation of the Greek hero Herakles, also known as Hercules.

“Some Phoenician coins carried Greek imagery to make them more appealing to traders,” Leeds City Council stated. Edwards has an interesting take on how this coin made it so far across eras and ecosystems: “It was not long after the war, so I imagine soldiers returned with coins from countries they had been sent to,” he told the City Council. “Neither of us were coin collectors but we were fascinated.”

Carthaginian coins from throughout the city’s rich history range in terms of rarity and price, often according to material. Although Leeds City Council has not stated or responded to a request for comment regarding what metal this coin is made of, it is reportedly made of bronze. At any rate, Edwards has foregone his payout, regardless of its sum, opting instead to donate the ancient treasure to the Leeds Discovery Centre, already home to an expansive collection of currency spanning thousands of years and most of the globe.

“My grandfather would be proud to know, as I am, that the coin is coming back to Leeds,” Edwards said. “However, how it got there will always be a mystery.”

By Vittoria Benzine.

The coin will now be part of the collection based at Leeds Discovery Centre, which includes coins and currency from cultures around the world spanning thousands of years of history.

[uncleclaudius]

Divus Augustus gold coin. Augustus died on 19th August 14 AD and he was deified by the Senate shortly after his funeral.

[tiny-librarian]

A rare didrachm from 138/137 BC. This series was the only one to include a portrait of Ptolemy VIII, whose other coinage issues had his ancestor Ptolemy I's bust.

[koenji]

Findings uncovered in the excavations of the Sanhedrin Trail. Photo by Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority.

An ancient oil lamp engraved with an eight-branched menorah and evidence of the glass industry mentioned in rabbinical texts.

[paulprestigegems]

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