andygold
Jr. Member
- Mar 29, 2017
- 96
- 138
- Detector(s) used
-
Minelab Equinox 800,
HF 9-Function md,
Garrett Pro-Pointer AT PP
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Got your attention!!??!!
Extreme Find!!! Something that Metal Detection Expert Gary Drayton would probably call a "Bobby Dazzler", or at least a "Top Pocket Find"
(Ode to The Curse of Oak Island). Best I can tell, it's a Roman coin from around 330 AD. It's almost the exact same size as a US penny, and it's quite toasty. It has the Emperor Crispus (son of Emperor Constantine) on it. I looked it up online and cannot find the exact coin, but I did find something extremely close, with the same wording, but with small differences. The question I've been getting asked is where did I dig it up.
It was in my wife's change bucket at home... She actually got it as change for a purchase in a local store. Which store, she doesn't know. She gets change, doesn't count it, and just throws it in her purse. She empties her purse into the bucket when it starts to fill up her purse. She noticed it wasn't a US penny and asked me to take a look. Under magnification I instantly noticed that the strike on the reverse was very much off center, which got my curiosity rolling. On the obverse, I was able to make out the letters RISPVSNO, and a Google search of the lettering along with the word "coin" came up with images of Roman coins and the Emperor Crispus.
I live in the US near the Canadian border and I can only assume that some cashier got it as change and probably figured it was Canadian or just too dirty to keep in his/her drawer, and promptly gave it back out as change. How a 1700 year old coin got back in to circulation in the first place I will never know, but I'm happy it did.
My phone does not take great pictures, but these were the clearest I was able to get. I didn't want to clean the coin, and left it as I got it. I guess I should probably dig out my digital camera and see if I can get better images. Wit that said, here is what I currently have.
Coin appears to me to be copper, as it looks like a really crusty US penny (almost same exact size as a penny). Flash from my phone is making it look silvery. I found a mostly similar coin online, but the right arm on my coin goes out from the shoulder and then up, while the image online has the arm going down from the shoulder, and then out.
The "RISPVSNO" is easily observed at the top of coin.
Extreme Find!!! Something that Metal Detection Expert Gary Drayton would probably call a "Bobby Dazzler", or at least a "Top Pocket Find"
(Ode to The Curse of Oak Island). Best I can tell, it's a Roman coin from around 330 AD. It's almost the exact same size as a US penny, and it's quite toasty. It has the Emperor Crispus (son of Emperor Constantine) on it. I looked it up online and cannot find the exact coin, but I did find something extremely close, with the same wording, but with small differences. The question I've been getting asked is where did I dig it up.It was in my wife's change bucket at home... She actually got it as change for a purchase in a local store. Which store, she doesn't know. She gets change, doesn't count it, and just throws it in her purse. She empties her purse into the bucket when it starts to fill up her purse. She noticed it wasn't a US penny and asked me to take a look. Under magnification I instantly noticed that the strike on the reverse was very much off center, which got my curiosity rolling. On the obverse, I was able to make out the letters RISPVSNO, and a Google search of the lettering along with the word "coin" came up with images of Roman coins and the Emperor Crispus.
I live in the US near the Canadian border and I can only assume that some cashier got it as change and probably figured it was Canadian or just too dirty to keep in his/her drawer, and promptly gave it back out as change. How a 1700 year old coin got back in to circulation in the first place I will never know, but I'm happy it did.
My phone does not take great pictures, but these were the clearest I was able to get. I didn't want to clean the coin, and left it as I got it. I guess I should probably dig out my digital camera and see if I can get better images. Wit that said, here is what I currently have.
Coin appears to me to be copper, as it looks like a really crusty US penny (almost same exact size as a penny). Flash from my phone is making it look silvery. I found a mostly similar coin online, but the right arm on my coin goes out from the shoulder and then up, while the image online has the arm going down from the shoulder, and then out.
The "RISPVSNO" is easily observed at the top of coin.
Last edited:
Upvote
13
That is a neat piece of history
