That Roman coin I dug up in my backyard last Tuesday turned out to be a 3rd century replica someone buried as a prank.

I found it 8 inches deep near my lilac bush and got so excited thinking I had a real artifact, then the local museum curator identified it as a modern tourist souvenir from a trip to Italy back in the 1990s, has anyone else had a fake artifact get their hopes up?

2 comments

2 Comments

david7391mo ago

Did you get a chance to check the dirt around it for any other clues about who buried it? I get why you'd be disappointed but honestly a 90s prank coin is still kind of a fun story to tell.

paulw631mo ago

Yeah I read somewhere that those arcade tokens were pretty common as prank items back in the 90s. People would bury them in yards or parks to mess with metal detector hobbyists. So it makes sense you found one like that. And like you said @david739 it's still a fun story even if it's not treasure. I bet whoever buried it got a kick out of thinking about someone digging it up later.