ANCIENT COIN FOUND IN BUS FAREBOX?

 

A coin once used to pay for a bus fare was created more than 2,000 years ago.

James Edwards worked as a cashier for the Leeds Transport Company in the 1950s, gathering fares from bus and tram drivers in the city.

He put fake and foreign coins to one side, and this collection was passed down to his grandson, Peter Edwards.

Mr Edwards later set about investigating one of the stranger items in the collection, which has now been revealed to be a coin that was minted 2,000 years ago.

It was made in the 1st century BC by descendants of the Carthaginians, in what is now Cadiz, and features their god Melqart, ruler of the underworld.

The other side of the coin, likely used in trade across the Mediterranean, features the Greek hero Heracles.

How the items came to be used as bus fare in 1950s Leeds remains a mystery.

Mr Edwards told the BBC: “My grandfather would come across coins which were not British and put them to one side, and when I went to his house, he would hand me a few.

“It was not long after the war, so I imagine soldiers returned with coins from countries they had been sent to.

“Neither of us were coin collectors, but we were fascinated by their origin and imagery – to me, they were treasure.”

To read the complete article, see:
Coin used as bus fare was 2,000-year-old currency (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/coin-used-as-bus-fare-was-2-000-year-old-currency/ar-AA1XLPHx)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web