Strange UFO coin from 1680 puzzles the experts

Originally Posted by Jazzcoins at Coin Talk Post ID 480360

Well I though this would be an interesting topic and different. Here are serveral UFO coins which puzzle the experts. The first coin is a mysteries coin dating from 1680 which puzzles the experts. The coin appears to show a UFO [or] a symbolic representation of the Bibical Ezekiel's Wheel. One or the other but little less (according to Kenneth Breset former president of the American numismatic association) It really does look like an awful lot like a modern representation of a UFO, but of course it's just present day bias to think that because it looks like a UFO to us, that's what the coin maker intended it to be. However, I'm sure many are going to seize on this as evidence of the exsistence of seventeeth century UFO's.

Jazzcoins Joe

PS. Here's the reverse of the UFO coin

Originally Posted by Jesh at Coin Talk Post ID 481367

This is a French jeton minted in 1680, a coin-like educational tool that was commonly used to help people count money, or sometimes used as a money substitute for playing games. It is about the size of a U.S. quarter-dollar and similar to thousands of other jetons with different religious and educational designs that were produced and used in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. It appears to commemorate a UFO sighting of a wheel like object. Some researchers feel it represents the Biblical Ezekiel's wheel. The Latin inscription 'OPPORTUNUS ADEST' translates as 'It is here at an opportune time".

SOURCE: Strange UFO coin from 1680 puzzles the experts

The post above from Jazzcoin Jow was place on a skeptic forum "Museum of Hoaxes"

Here are a few of the comments made;

• "It also looks a lot like a flower, a mushroom, or an umbrella."
• "I agree that it does look like a flower, perhaps sprouting from the plant on the top. But what plant makes flowers when it had fruit?"
• "It could just be bad art."
• "This looks like the view from under a tree that has a blooming, ornate flower (not a UFO), which would make the most sense given the inscription. It's taken the Numismatic "expert" 50 years to figure that out (or refuse to see it?)"
• 'If it was a UFO, perhaps the fact that it went to France explains why the aliens have chosen never to return to earth..."
• "The reverse looks like a tree getting rained on. If so, maybe the obverse is a raincloud just before the rain starts."
• "It looks like a lotus flower."

"Those of you who understand Italian will find an explanation for the coin on http://www.sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte_UFO_7.htm

This page, another skeptical view, goes into a long detailed look at the TYPE of coin, a Jeton (which has already been established):

We do not know which image appeared on the other side of the coin in question, but we can not imagine a figure very different from those that appear in other coins with the same "mysterious shield in the sky". In this we see the justice that holds the sword in one hand and the balance in the other, but at his feet a character down a bag of coins.  It seems like a satirical cartoon: justice is sold for money? (see image below) - Source

Ed Note: Well we do have the reverse of that 'coin'... as shown above and it is different than the Justice scene.

Many coins of this type contained mythological and allegorical scenes, and its mythology has found a literary reference that can explain the nature of the object round which is in the clouds and the earth. It may in fact represent 'Ancil, the sacred shield sent by Jupiter to the King of Rome, Numa Pompilius.

The legend is told in different versions, one of Ovid ( "Fasti, Book III ) Numa Pompilio said that it would decide to question Jupiter to be disclosed the secret to defend against its attacks. Jupiter asks in exchange for a human sacrifice, but that Numa is a peaceful man refuses and fails, with puns, to deceive God. Numa fears the wrath of Jupiter, but instead of angry god laughs for the wit and the king promises him the day after the revelation of the secret. The day after Numa Pompilius convene the representatives of the districts of Rome, and at noon, as promised, here is that of lightning pierce the sky that falls from an oval shield right at his feet. The same Jupiter, throwing the shield from the sky, does not know that Rome would have nothing to fear from his enemies as long as the shield was well guarded. The king is to thank god to sacrifice a heifer and the shield door in the sanctuary of your own home, but for fear that it may be stolen, it builds by the artisan Mamurio Veturius (meaning "old Mars') eleven perfectly equal, then commanding them to be carried by I got during the annual procession on March 2.

According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the empire of the world was for the city that kept the 'Ancil. 

Source

As for the coin (it is a jeton), I think it is depicting the ancile, the sacred shield sent from the sky to King Numa by Jupiter. Please read the following from Plutarch's Lives, Volume I:

• Strange UFO coin from 1680 puzzles the experts - Coin Talk
• UFO Coin - Museum of Hoaxes - Skeptics View
• Gettone con iscrizione "OPPORTVNVS ADEST" - Skeptics View - Italian
• Google English Translation

An unidentified flying object on a 17th century French coin continues to mystify rare coin experts.

Colorado Springs, CO (PRWEB) January 28, 2005 -- After decades of seeking possible answers about a mysterious UFO-like design on a 17th century French copper coin, a prominent numismatic expert says it remains just that: an unidentified flying object. After a half-century of research, the design has defied positive identification by the numismatic community.
 

"It was made in the 1680s in France and the design on one side certainly looks like it could be a flying saucer in the clouds over the countryside," said Kenneth E. Bressett of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a former President of the 32,000-member American Numismatic Association and owner of the curious coin.

"Is it supposed to be a UFO of some sort, or a symbolic representation of the Biblical Ezekiel's wheel? After 50 years of searching, I've heard of only one other example of it, and nothing to explain the unusual design."

Bressett said the mysterious piece is not really a coin, but a "jeton," a coin-like educational tool that was commonly used to help people count money, or sometimes used as a money substitute for playing games. It is about the size of a U.S. quarter-dollar and similar to thousands of other jetons with different religious and educational designs that were produced and used in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.

"The design on this particular piece could be interpreted as showing either a UFO or Ezekiel's wheel, but little else. Some people think the Old Testament reference to Ezekiel's wheel may actually be a description of a long-ago UFO," he explained.

"The legend written in Latin around the rim is also mystifying. 'OPPORTUNUS ADEST' translates as 'It is here at an opportune time.' Is the object in the sky symbolic of needed rainfall, or a Biblical reference or visitors from beyond? We probably will never know for certain," said Bressett.

"It is part of the lure of numismatics that makes coin collecting so intriguing." 

SOURCE: NICAP Centuries' Old UFO Coin Remains Mystery