2,000-year-old coin accepted as payment for bus journey

A 2,000-year-old coin was once used to pay a bus fare, it has emerged.

James Edwards worked as a cashier for the Leeds Transport Company in the 1950s, collecting fares from the city’s buses and trams. He set aside any fake or foreign coins he came across, a collection that was later passed down to his grandson, Peter Edwards.

Among the coins, one particularly unusual piece has now been identified as dating back 2,000 years. 

Minted in the 1st century BC by descendants of the Carthaginians in what is now Cadiz, the coin features the god Melqart, ruler of the underworld, on one side. The reverse depicts the Greek hero Heracles, suggesting it was likely used in trade across the Mediterranean.

How such an ancient coin ended up being used as bus fare in 1950s Leeds remains a mystery. Peter Edwards told the BBC: “My grandfather would come across coins which were not British and put them to one side, and when I visited, he would hand me a few. It was not long after the war, so I imagine soldiers returned with coins from countries they had been sent to. Neither of us were coin collectors, but we were fascinated by their origin and imagery – to me, they were treasure.”

Mr Edwards has now offered to donate the coin to Leeds Museums and Galleries.

Ancient coins making their way into everyday use is not unheard of. In 2023, a 400-year-old golf coin from the reign of Charles I was discovered in a box of loose change in Royal Tunbridge Wells. Originally worth 22 shillings, it was valued at £25,000 when auctioned.

The UK’s most valuable coin finds include a hoard of 2,584 Norman Conquest-era silver pennies discovered by metal detectorists in Chew Valley near Bath in 2019, which was later sold for £4.3 million in 2024.

This article is for general information and interest purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice, nor does it necessarily represent the views of HCB.