Found a roman coin in my grandfather's old tackle box after he passed

I was clearing out my granddad's garage last summer up near Buffalo, New York, and came across this beat up old tackle box from the 1970s. Inside, mixed in with rusty hooks and old lures, was this small copper colored coin that looked way older than anything else in there. I figured it was just some old foreign change he picked up on a trip, but I took it to a local history museum anyway. The curator got all excited and said it was a Roman bronze coin from around 340 AD, probably from the reign of Constantine II. It must have sat in that box for decades without anyone realizing what it was. Now I'm wondering how many other people have found random artifacts in their family's old stuff and just tossed them out. Has anyone else pulled something historic out of a relative's junk pile without knowing what you had at first?

2 comments

2 Comments

reed.eva25d ago

3 pieces of advice from actual archaeologists I know would be to never take a random coin to a museum without documentation, because now you've basically admitted to potentially handling something that could be considered stolen property if it was taken from a protected site (and you don't really know where your granddad got it, right?). Most random "roman coins" people find turn out to be souvenir replicas from the 1950s or fake tourist junk, so you might have just embarrassed yourself in front of a curator for nothing. Plus, even if it's real, now that museum probably wants it for their collection and you're stuck in this weird ethical gray area of personal keepsakes versus historical artifacts. Honestly, the whole "treasure in the attic" thing is mostly a fantasy people chase to feel special about their grandma's junk.

gibson.sean25d ago

Did you ever have a neighbor who swore they found pirate gold in their backyard and it turned out to be an old Pepsi cap?