At work, most of my time is spent identifying Roman coins. Now, the process is interesting in itself, but once you've got thought close to a hundred coins in one day, it starts to get a little tedious. On Friday afternoons in particular, I sometimes let my imagination fly, when I'm interpreting the images. So far I've had a coin with headless horseman, another with an ant, and third proving that Romans not only were aware of the existence of dinosaurs, but also liked them enough to depict them on their coins. Today, however, I found the best coin ever!

A little background first. In the third century AD Britain, the natives manufactured copies of the official currency, which were often rather poor quality, and frequently mixed elements for several different coins. The most common type of coin copied is the Antoninianus (or Radiate, named after the spiked crown the emperor wears in these coins), and so these copies are called Barbarous Radiates. Today's little coin of curiosity is a rarity in that it was a Barbarous silver copy of a bronze coin, something which the people working here don't see very often, if ever. In any case, the head side of the coin was typically Barbarous, but once I flipped the coin over, there was an anthropomorphic Amazon staring back at me! I got very excited about this, and made some quick theories about Romano-British Amazon worshipping practises. The figure shown was standing, holding a spear in her left hand, and looking to the right. She was definitely female, because of her prominent breasts, which is very rare thing to see on coins, although having thought about it for a moment longer, I realised she couldn't possibly be an Amazon. According to the legend, the Amazons removed their right breast to be able to better use bows . Even more striking than the breasts was the lion's head, with shaggy mane surrounding it. I rushed to share my discovery with my colleagues, who unfortunately shattered my theories by pointing out that the lion's head was just a very crudely carved human face with a radiate crown. Now I'm wallowing in my disappointment.

I think some of these days I should compile a book of all the unlikely things I've seen on coins. It might not go down well among the academic community, but it would no doubt amuse people.