Strange UFO Coin from 1680 Puzzles the Experts , page 1

Strange UFO Coin from 1680 Puzzles the Experts

Thought I would drag this one up mostly because I found a great copy of the coin on a numismatic page that shows both sides...

Looking around the web there are basically three opinions on what it represents....

1) a UFO, depicting something seen in the 1600's (seems there are several stories of a flap in that era)
2) the 'Flying Shield' of Jupiter
3) a representation of Ezekiel's Wheel..

Here is the coin in question in high resolution

OPPORTVNVS ADEST translated as "It is here at an opportune time"
Here is the reverse side...

HÆC PER TE AVCTA COLAM translated as "Let this growth be pleasing for your heart"

Looks like a Tree of Life representation

Opinions...

Here are several 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 Biblical 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.

SOURCE Coin Talk

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 Coin Talk

Some comments from the skeptics...

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."

Museum of Hoaxes

Okay enough of that... there are worse... not much help there...

Coin with inscription "OPPORTVNVS ADEST" from sprezzatura.it/

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)

Well no... we have the reverse and it doesn't show the Justice... that is from another coin

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 story of the flying sheild...

from Plutarch's Lives, Volume I:

In the eighth year of Numa's reign an epidemic raged throughout Italy, and afflicted the city of Rome. Now amidst the general distress it is related that a brazen shield fell from heaven into the hands of Numa. Upon this the king made an inspired speech, which he had learned from Egeria and the Muses. The shield, he said, came for the salvation of the city, and they must guard it, and make eleven more like it, so that no thief could steal the one that fell from heaven, because he could not tell which it was. Moreover the place and the meadows round about it, where he was wont to converse with the Muses, must be consecrated to them, and the well by which it was watered must be pointed out as holy water to the vestal virgins, that they might daily take some thence to purify and sprinkle their temple. The truth of this is said to have been proved by the immediate cessation of the plague. He bade workmen compete in imitating the shield, and, when all others refused to attempt it, Veturius Mamurius, one of the best workmen of the time, produced so admirable an imitation, and made all the shields so exactly alike, that even Numa himself could not tell which was the original. He next appointed the Salii to guard and keep them.

Some shields that skeptics show as samples;







Here are more coins with the same "Flying Shield"





So it is either a UFO from the 1600's; Ezekiel's Wheel or the Flying Shield from the Gods that arrived admidst flashes of lighting in a 'timely manner' to protect the city... take your pick...

Seems everyone is in agreement that it is a flying object from the 'heavens'... that Jupiter story sure sounds like a UFO story to me

Centuries' Old UFO Coin Remains Mystery

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.

www.nicap.org...

Originally posted by Anttyk47
They use the shield with the pointy end as an example of debunking, but i mean the first think i thought of was.... Hello ? Maybe they started putting that spear on the end of their shields BECAUSE of the UFO's shape

What is really cool in this case is that even the debunkers are saying it represents a huge flying shield from the gods that came at an opportune time to protect the city... Seems they just proved it is a UFO, only from an earlier time;

Also check out this related thread
UFO Battle South France, from Marseilles to Genoa, 1608
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Also Skyfloating's new thread

The Book of Enoch on Extraterrestrials
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by zorgon

---

no, I think it has something to do with The Archangel Gabriel and the announcement to Mary. But I'm not sure.

reply to post by Gazrok

---

Perhaps .. although the other two coin examples just show empty fields, quite odd if you were trying to depict a defensive stance. Perhaps the arrows in the example you post were aggression to the unknown object.
I'm torn on this one, an interesting topic all the same, nice one Zorgon.

This is a paragraph from a book by Jim Bradbury called The Medieval Siege.=

At Syburg the Saxons besieged the Franks, and set up siege engines, though the chronicler sneers that they did more damage with their engines to themselves than to the Franks another suspiciously frequent comment to belittle one's foe. The Saxon engines did not do the trick, so they prepared faggots to fire the town, but God intervened and sent two shields red with flame over the church so that the Saxons fled. It is difficult to know what a modern reader should make of these pious accounts, beyond a recognition that monkish chroniclers thought safety lay in the hands of God. Accounts of sieges in the Frankish period, when the enemy was often pagan, are particularly prone to this kind of description. All the same, it still tells us that the Saxons could fire a town, and possessed siege engines. Since the Vikings also used engines, it is clear that barbarian Europe in the Viking age had at least some sophistication in military equipment.

I think this coin probably depicts this event, as Charlamagne was/still is revered to this day in France. Often coins commemerate great events in a nations history, so I see this as the most likely explanantion to this coin. This however does not detract from what those people saw that day. If you want to find out what happened at that siege you'll need to do some digging in the book "Annales Regni Francorum", which you should be able to pick up a translated copy of.

Compare the holes on the central divider section of the disk.

I know everyone claims the Skyship wasn't a legit Flying Disk but the more evidence I see, the more I am convinced that this "Skyship" is actually predicated upon secret technology.

I have no clue what the purpose of the holes on the central divider section are. But they are clearly visible in this old photograph, and on the disk depicted on the old coins.

If you look around, many disk reports actually have the "holes" depicted as well.

Also the bottom of the craft is segmented like a wheel. In both instances.



BTW: That Skyship photo has been proven as real and legit. There is a lot of evidence to support the veracity of it's authenticity.

edit on 3-3-2011 by muzzleflash because: (no reason given)

A source for further information and more sources on Skyship, in case anyone is curious about it.
An old thread I wrote in 2005 seeking information about it.
Old Skyship Thread

Adding two more images.
The Big Red Arrow at the top points at the holes.



And another photo of Skyship from another angle.

Also please take a glance at my OP in this really old thread about the 62 children who swear they saw a UFO land outside their schoolhouse in Zimbabwe.

Look at their drawings!!

Each one shows a disk with HOLES on the side of it!

And keep in mind this story is fairly well researched and there is a lot of information to contend with.

Why are there holes around it?? No clue. But there is....
62 Kids meet Aliens in Zimbabwe

****Sorry off topic***

Ill throw in one of my ancient faves;

The Dragons triange... Many ancient reports of what seems like uso's, to present day.

Heres a thred I just found. www.abovetopsecret.com...

Verry cool !!!

UFO Filmed From Avebury Crop Circle, UK With Multiple Witnesses
  Posted 19 days ago with 89 member flags

The Men In Black(OPs) The Aviary & UFOs
  Posted 12 days ago with 83 member flags

The Mysterious Baltic Sea Object : an Update from Peter Lindberg "Ocean Explorers Team"
  Posted 16 days ago with 41 member flags

Did a RAF Tornado crash during a UFO intercept mission in 1997?
  Posted 14 days ago with 39 member flags

What is this comming out of our star?
  Posted 9 days ago with 33 member flags

Huge Unknown Objects orbiting the Sun for months...?
  Posted 8 days ago with 29 member flags

The CIA and the UFO Mythos
  Posted 16 days ago with 26 member flags

UFO Reporting for the 21st Century!
  Posted 12 days ago with 26 member flags

Newest topics, updated in real-time:

Newest topics getting flags, in real-time:

Newest topics getting replies, in real-time: