LIFE-SAVING COINS

Coins and Health

Continuing our look at coins and health there are other examples of how coins can be good for you. In these cases very good for you as they saved people’s lives. There are several stories of coins stopping bullets in war time. These days if you survived a shooting it would more likely be your phone that would save you.

The first example comes from the British Museum. [1]

This was a coin that saved the life of a Mr Forbes at Battle of Culloden in 1745. It is not recorded what coin it was. It looks like a halfpenny. Go forward seventy years and there is an example from the Battle of Waterloo. There is no doubt this is a cartwheel penny and there is a clear impression of the musket ball. [2]

The last example is not one but a stack of silver five franc coins which saved a Belgian World War I soldier.[3] Optatius Buyssens had been carrying some loose change in the breast pocket of his jacket when he went on a reconnaissance mission near the Belgian town of Lebbeke in September 1914. The clinking of the metal in his pocket alerted nearby German soldiers, but when he came under fire, the bullet ricocheted off the coins, saving his life.

I am bit disappointed that I have not found a story about a Roman centurion whose life was saved by the denarius in his pocket which turned an angry Briton’s sword but you cannot have everything. So if you want to stay safe what is the best coin to carry in your breast pocket? Probably a cartwheel twopence I would say. Stay safe and well and do not try this at home!

Sources:

[1] https://research.britishmuseum.org/join_in/using_digital_images
/using_digital_images.aspx?asset_id=503134001&objectId=949970&partId=1 used by kind permission of the British Museum under their creative commons licence. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

[2] The E-Sylum: Volume 18, Number 5, February 1, 2015, Article 24
COIN SAVED SOLDIER'S LIFE AT BATTLE OF WATERLOO (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v18n05a24.html)

[3] Both images by kind permission of Vincent Buyssens.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
COINS AS TALISMANS: SAINT GEORGE'S DAY (https://www.coinbooks.org/v23/esylum_v23n17a10.html)

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