{"id":40122,"date":"2026-04-03T16:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40122"},"modified":"2026-04-03T16:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T16:53:15","slug":"coin-used-as-bus-fare-turns-out-to-be-2000-year-old-relic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40122","title":{"rendered":"Coin used as bus fare turns out to be 2,000-year-old relic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft wp-block-nypost-editor-partner-article-links\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>A 2,000-year-old coin was unknowingly used as bus fare in England \u2014 before officials realized it dated back to the\u00a0Carthaginian empire.<\/p>\n<p>The artifact, produced in what is now Cadiz, Spain, was recently donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries, according to a March statement from the City of Leeds.<\/p>\n<p>Carthage, an\u00a0ancient civilization\u00a0based in North Africa, lasted from roughly 800 B.C. to 146 B.C. \u2014 and the coin dates to the first century B.C.<\/p>\n<p>The relic was collected in the 1950s by a Leeds City Transport employee named James Edwards, who tallied fares from bus and tram drivers at the end of each day and counted them.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards would set aside coins that couldn\u2019t be cashed \u2014 including foreign or counterfeit currency \u2014 and take them home.<\/p>\n<p>He gave the ancient coin to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/topic\/family-and-friends\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">his grandson, Peter,<\/a>\u00a0who stored it in a wooden chest.<\/p>\n<p>Now 77, Peter Edwards recently revisited the coin and researched its origins.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeither of us were coin collectors, but we were fascinated by their origin and imagery \u2014 to me, they were treasure,\u201d said Peter Edwards.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>A 2,000-year-old coin was unknowingly used as bus fare in England \u2014 before officials realized it dated back to the\u00a0Carthaginian empire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He added, \u201cThe coin always fascinated me because it was hard to decipher where it came from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Edwards donated the coin to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/travel\/general\/museums-exhibits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Leeds Discovery Center\u2019s collection<\/a>, a free museum that includes \u201ccoins and currency from cultures around the world spanning thousands of years of history,\u201d the city said.<\/p>\n<p>The coin may have been collected by a soldier who\u00a0returned to Leeds, said a Leeds City Council spokesperson, but officials say they \u201cwill never know for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The artifact, produced in what is now Cadiz, Spain, was recently donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries, according to a March statement from the City of Leeds. <span class=\"credit\">Leeds City Council<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The relic was collected in the 1950s by a Leeds City Transport employee named James Edwards, who tallied fares from bus and tram drivers at the end of each day and counted them. <span class=\"credit\">Leeds City Council<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Similar coins have been found previously, the official told Fox News Digital, allowing experts to cross-reference and identify this example.<\/p>\n<p>The spokesperson added that a Leeds curator confirmed the coin\u2019s identity and provided additional background following Peter Edwards\u2019 donation.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Edwards grandson donated the coin to\u00a0Leeds Discovery Center\u2019s collection, a free museum that includes \u201ccoins and currency from cultures around the world spanning thousands of years of history,\u201d the city said. <span class=\"credit\">Leeds City Council<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Carthaginian coin bears the image of the god Melqart, the Phoenician\u00a0counterpart of Hercules.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt that time, some Phoenician coins carried Greek imagery to make them more appealing to traders,\u201d Leeds City Council said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards told city officials his grandfather would be \u201cproud\u201d to know that the coin would come back to Leeds.<\/p>\n<p>He added, \u201cHowever, how it got there will always be a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/02\/science\/coin-used-as-bus-fare-turns-out-to-be-2000-year-old-relic\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 2,000-year-old coin was unknowingly used as bus fare in England \u2014 before officials realized it dated back to the\u00a0Carthaginian empire. The artifact, produced in what&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}