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MYSTERIOUS ANCIENT COIN FOUND IN AUSTRALIAWorkers at a golf course in Australia discovered a mysterious corroded old coin. Can you identify it? Answer below. -Editor 
When three golfers started repairing an old bench at Springwood Golf Course they never expected to uncover a wartime mystery. During their repairs on the bench, found outside the golf course's pro shop, the three men discovered an old coin behind a memorial plaque. The coin depicts ancient art and features intriguing dents. Hoping to learn more, one of the men - Bob Blakemore - reached out to local veteran Greg Meek, a member of the Blue Mountains Vietnam Veterans Association. Mr Meek believes the coin depicts the acropolis - and that the damaged parts of it could be from stray shrapnel. "This seems to be... either a shrapnel or a bullet hole. So we don't know whether the coin was on his body and... stopped that penetrating his body, or what," Mr Meek said. "You can get very tiny fragments of shrapnel, which could do that." The coin has a smaller hole in the same place on each side, indicating it could have been worn around someone's neck, with the hole used to thread a string through. The plaque which concealed the coin is dedicated to Sergeant George Cunningham. About a month later, this follow-up article appeared. -Editor The Gazette recently published an article on this corroded coin and plaque, detailing the life of the man commemorated and calling for submissions that could help identify the coin. Since then Dianne Rutherford, curator of military heraldry and technology at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, has formally identified the coin as a more recent Euro. 
The image above shows a side-by-side comparison of the 10 Euro Cent coin and the coin found behind the plaque. The Brandenburg gate is visible in both photos, along with the year 2002 at the bottom of both coins. The Gazette would like to thank everyone who called or submitted emails to assist in identifying the coin and solving the mystery.
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Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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