Found a Roman coin in my backyard in Ohio last spring

I was digging a garden bed near my house in Columbus and hit something metal with my shovel. Turned out to be a bronze Roman coin from around 300 AD. My neighbor is an archaeologist at the local museum and said it probably came from a private collection that got scattered. Has anyone else found something way out of place like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

wyatt_mitchell2612d agoMost Upvoted

Man I gotta say, that's an awesome find but I think your neighbor might have it a little backwards. Roman coins from that era are actually pretty common finds in North America because of how many collectors brought them over in the 20th century. I've seen folks pull them up in garden beds all over the Midwest, and most of the time they're just souvenirs that got lost over the years. 300 AD bronze coins are usually pretty worn down too, so yours probably got dropped by some kid playing with grandpa's collection back in the 1950s or something. Still a cool piece of history to hang onto though.

michaeld4811d ago

You ever find something metal detecting that just makes you scratch your head... I pulled a beat up 1940s Buffalo nickel out of my grandma's flowerbed last spring, right next to a rusty toy truck from the 60s. The coin was so worn you could barely see the buffalo, but it still felt special just knowing it had been there for decades without anyone noticing. Maybe yours has a story like that too, just a random piece of someone's past that ended up in the dirt.

sandra_bennett5911d ago

Found a 1950s wheat penny under my porch steps while digging for a lost earring, no idea how it got there.