COINS STOPPED A BULLET AND SAVED A LIFE

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 46, November 18, 2018, Article 23

COINS STOPPED A BULLET AND SAVED A LIFE

Arthur Shippee and Scott Miller passed along this BBC News article. Thanks! fascinating story. -Editor

These coins both endangered and saved the life of a soldier in World War One.

Shot after the noise of them "clinging together in his breast pocket... gave his position away... the bullet that should have killed him ricocheted off of the coins thus saving his life".

Optatius Buyssens's great-grandson Vincent posted a photo of the coins on Reddit and it received more than 130,000 upvotes in 24 hours.

"He got kicked in the head by the German soldier who shot him but tricked the soldier into thinking he was dead," Vincent adds.

"When the German soldier left, he and another wounded comrade managed to crawl to safety."

"Three of the coins are from Belgium and three are from France," Phillippe adds.

After the War, Optatius had heart problems but he lived until 1958.

To read the complete article, see:
These coins stopped a bullet and saved a soldier's life (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-46186430)

Wayne Homren, Editor

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com

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