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Centuries' Old UFO Coin Remains Mystery
PRWEB ^ | January 28, 2005 | Donn Pearlman

Posted on 01/29/2005 5:10:32 AM PST by MississippiMasterpiece

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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: artbell; callingartbell; coin; coins; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; numismatics
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

Wheel and broken axle.


41 posted on 01/29/2005 6:04:09 AM PST by TaxRelief (Support the Troops Rally, Fayetteville, NC -- March 19, 2005)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece
It's a spinning wheel.

What goes up 
Must come down 
Spinning wheel 
Got to go around 
Talkin' 'bout your troubles 
It's a cryin' sin 
Ride a painted pony 
Let the spinning wheel spin 

You got no money 
You got no home 
Spinning wheel 
All alone 
Talkin' 'bout your troubles and you
You never learn 
Ride a painted pony 
Let the spinning wheel turn 

Did you find 
Your directing sign 
On the straight and narrow highway 

Would you mind a reflecting sign 
Just let it shine 
Within your mind 
And show you, the colors 
That are real 

Someone's waiting 
Just for you 
Spinning wheel
Spinning true 
Drop all your troubles by the riverside 
Ride a painted pony 
Let the spinning wheel fly

42 posted on 01/29/2005 6:04:53 AM PST by csvset
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To: TaxRelief

I was first


43 posted on 01/29/2005 6:05:09 AM PST by floridarolf
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To: ruiner; floridarolf
You're attracted to it, are ya?

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

44 posted on 01/29/2005 6:05:36 AM PST by woofer
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

Can somebody translate the legend on the back?


45 posted on 01/29/2005 6:09:15 AM PST by Christopher Lincoln
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To: AntiGuv

They've come to take our women!


46 posted on 01/29/2005 6:09:23 AM PST by uglybiker (The most popular guy at a nudist camp can carry 2 cups of coffee and a dozen doughnuts)
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To: Puddleglum
sundial


47 posted on 01/29/2005 6:10:17 AM PST by dennisw (Pryce-Jones: Arab culture is steeped in conspiracy theories, half truths, and nursery rhyme politics)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

AND THIS JUST IN: Coin collecting still the second most boring hobby, right behind stamp collecting.


48 posted on 01/29/2005 6:12:37 AM PST by durasell (Friends are so alarming, My lover's never charming...)
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To: Puddleglum

If it is a sundial, it would have 12 sections, not 16, right?

Those rivets look like wheel rivets.


49 posted on 01/29/2005 6:14:55 AM PST by demoRat watcher
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To: uglybiker

LOL! To your tagline, too!


50 posted on 01/29/2005 6:19:34 AM PST by small voice in the wilderness (Quick, act casual. If they sense scorn and ridicule, they'll flee..)
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To: Christopher Lincoln

I think it says "I pray this (=the coin) will multiply through you (=the other gambler)". But my schoollatin hasn't seen action for a couple of years now. I might be wrong.


51 posted on 01/29/2005 6:26:29 AM PST by floridarolf
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To: Popman
A flying ballon.

That'd be my guess. The first (recorded) *manned* hot air balloon was in France in 1783, but people must have been fiddling with smaller toy balloons long before that.

And the ornate patterns on the Mongolfier's balloon do bear a resemblance to the ones on the "thing" on the coin:


52 posted on 01/29/2005 6:31:22 AM PST by Ichneumon
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Comment #53 Removed by Moderator

To: Christopher Lincoln

I don't think the front is translated right:

It should be "Convenience is there" (Perhaps "there is a better way to do things")

I think the back says: "Here because of our maker's design"


54 posted on 01/29/2005 6:43:33 AM PST by demoRat watcher
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To: Ichneumon
Funny how the article leaves the "balloon" possibility out of the article.

That was my "first" impression. UFO fell way down on the list.

Do I detect a underlying "snake oil" salesman trying to up the price of the "UFO" coin.

Art Bell would be proud.

55 posted on 01/29/2005 7:00:21 AM PST by Popman
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To: MississippiMasterpiece
(exaggerated Asian accent) Da UFO have-a da big pee-nis.
56 posted on 01/29/2005 7:03:47 AM PST by Lazamataz (Running around in a circle waving my arms and screaming like a little girl)
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To: uglybiker
The most popular guy at a nudist camp can carry 2 cups of coffee and a dozen doughnuts

I don't get it.

57 posted on 01/29/2005 7:05:27 AM PST by Lazamataz (Running around in a circle waving my arms and screaming like a little girl)
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To: AntiGuv

I'm reminded of the old story, where one of the astronauts, completely bored with
endless psychological tests, replied to every answer
in a Roshark Test (sp?)with sexual overtones.

The Doctor finally says " You know, you have a Sexual Obsession,
that could get you dropped from the program"

The astronaut answered " I'VE GOT A SEXUAL OBSESSION? “ HELL YOUR THE ONE WITH ALL THE DIRTY PICTURES!!!!”


58 posted on 01/29/2005 7:10:05 AM PST by Robe (Rome did not create a great empire by talking, they did it by killing all those who opposed them)
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To: MississippiMasterpiece

"Hardon of the gods?"


59 posted on 01/29/2005 7:13:13 AM PST by pabianice
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To: demoRat watcher

What does colare mean? I remeber something like "to pray" or "to honor" (the gods). I think auctare means to make money or to multiply something


60 posted on 01/29/2005 7:22:21 AM PST by floridarolf
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