There are coins that come to you thanks to dealers and postal services, and others that do it on their own. Life is full of surprises (D. Lynch, The Elephant Man). My wife was just back from the south of France, by car. She parked the car in front of our house, took a heavy bag from the trunk, climbed the few steps to our door while I went out to take the rest of her luggage. On the steps I notice small traces of mud and a tiny black coin, the size of 1 eurocent. She assured me the steps were perfectly clean when she first climbed them a few seconds ago. Her soles were a little muddy: the only explanation we found was that the coin must have been stuck in the mud under her soles, and have fallen when she first climbed the stairs. And this mud could only come from a motorway gas station, where she remembered having run under the rain through a muddy grass patch. The coin is a double mite of Flanders, minted in some now Belgian city, the kind that circulated in the Duchy of Burgundy in the late middle ages - early modern period, under Philip the Fair and Charles V. And it is true that this gas station location, north of Lyons, was not in France at the time but in the Duchy of Burgundy, later in Charles V Empire. I could find on internet no exact match. Maybe somebody here could help me identify this mysterious coin that came to me on its own after more than 500 years?
I think I see [R]OM on the obverse side with SIT NO[M...] on the reverse which would make it Karel V ca. 1520
Thank you ! But I also see on obverse before [R]OM a clear [...]CA[.] I cannot understand... unless it isn't a C but a T... or something else?
Excellent story! I will surely be using that one on my wife next time I buy a coin that I don't want her to know how much I paid for. "Oh, my goodness dear. Look what you dragged in on the bottom of your shoe!" Ps, time to have her take you back to that gas station and have a look around in that patch of grass! #dopethingsthatneverhappenintheUS
These were officially struck in Brugge ca. 1520 and some legend variations are to be expected I guess. Another possibility is a local Flemish imitation. The official dubbele mijt was heavily copied and imitated by local lords and perhaps forgers in the 15th century, a 'tradition' that could've been continued in the 16th. Plus the feeling I have is that it is not a very studied issue, it was considered rare 15 years ago.
Whatever. If I were at your place @GinoLR , I would surely consider it as a sign of good fortune on the approach of Christmas and The new year. A medieval coin that sticks to your shoe till your doorstep. Merry Christmas to you and your family. Cheer
Thank you and merry Christmas (in advance) to you too. I don't know if a medieval coin (or almost medieval, @seth77 proposes to date this coin from 1520) sticking to my shoe is actually a sign of good fortune. In France there is an old superstition saying that the sign of good fortune is involuntarily stepping on something else with the left foot.
Thanks!!! This is exactly what I needed! With the help of Google translate (even it it confuses Charles V with Charlemagne ) I can understand the Flemish text. 1520... the coin arrived on my doorstep in 2020, exactly after 500 years. Even better!
Do not think it could never happen in the US. I read somewhere that in the 17th c. some French traffickers in Louisiana (in all the Middle-West, in fact, from New Orleans to Lake Ontario) traded with the natives with "médailles", that is ancient Roman coins like old and worn copper antoniniani or LRBs. These coins had no value in Europe, but were accepted by certain Indian tribes. I heard the same story from a coin-dealer in Toronto. So you could very well find a Postumus, a Claudius Gothicus or a Constantine in USA...
