Hello, A friend found a coin in a case in the car he bought and we were wondering what it might be. These are the best pictures we could get. It's pretty tarnished and corroded. Can anyone maybe help? From what we could see, it look like a guy with a cape or maybe a robe holding up a staff on his left and a bird on the ground to the right looking up at him. He may be holding a bow or something in his right hand above the birds head. the other side has a profile picture but we really can't see detail there at all. Some of the lettering the the profile side looks like COESVENTINZSIE... Thanks for at least looking!!! :hail:
Interesting thing to find in a car. It's a bronze coin of Constantine I. The type was struck in a variety of mints between about 311-316 AD. Perhaps someone with a copy of RIC can pinpoint the year more precisely. On the obverse we have a laureate head right (or perhaps pearl-diademed, I can't tell given the condition of the coin). The legend reads IMP C FL VAL CONSTANTINVS PF AVG, meaning Imperator Caesar Flavius Valerius Constantinus Pius Felix Augustus. The reverse shows Jupiter standing left, holding Victory on globe in right hand, long sceptre in left, with chlamys hanging over left shoulder and eagle at feet. It reads IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG, meaning in plain English, Jupiter the Preserver of the Augusti (plural, because there was more than one emperor at the time). Then we have the exergue, the short legend at the bottom of reverse. It read SMHT (with an E in the right field of the reverse design, which actually pertains to what's in the exergue, so I'll mention it here). All together is means Sacra Moneta Heraclea Officina Epsilon or: Sacred Mint (or Money) Heraclea (HT is a less-seen code for that mint, but that's how I read it on this coin), Workshop 5. Heraclea is now modern-day Eregli, Turkey. To answer your next question: Nope, it ain't worth much, especially in that condition. To give you an idea, I have a similar one in better shape I got for five bucks. Still, the coolest thing I've ever found in a car was an empty gum wrapper.
Oh yeah, and to answer another question you might now have... Yes, it's real. Your friend found an honest-to-gosh real ancient Roman coin lying around in a used car. It's a common one, but not so common that people find them in used cars every day. Or anywhere else for that matter.
That's a really cool find in a used car! I once found somebodies membership card to 24 hour fitness in the used car I got
