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An ancient Roman coin found in Illinois


from Ancient Man: A Handbook of Puzzling Artifacts, William R Corliss, Sourcebook Project, 1978.

Anonymous; Scientific American, 46:382, 1882.

A farmer in Cass County, Ill., picked up on his farm a curious bronze coin, which Dr. J. f. snyder sent to Prof. F. F. Hilder, of St. Louis, who writes about it as follows to the Kansas City Review:

Upon examination I identified it as a coin of Antiochus IV., surnamed Epiphanes, one of the kings of Syria, of the family of the Seleucidae, who reigned from 175 B.C. to 164 B.C., and who is mentioned in the Bible (first book of Maccabees, chapter 1, verse 10) as a cruel persecutor of the Jews.

The coin bears on one side a finely executed head of the King, and on the obverse a sitting figure of Jupiter, bearing in his extended right hand a small figure of Victory, and in his left a wand or scepter, with an inscription in ancient Greek characters---Basileos Antiochou, Epiphanous, and another word, partly defaced, which I believed to be Nikephorou; the tanslation of which is: King Antiochus, Epiphanes (Illustrious), the Victorious. When found it was very much blackened and corroded from long exposure, but when cleaned it appeared in a fine state of preservation and but little worn.


















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