I dug this up in my garden about 35 years ago, but couldn't find any more which made me think somebody dropped the coin about 800 years ago when a penny must have been a lot of money. I often think about the person who lost it. Who was he/she, what was he doing here, did he have to go hungry, did he dare to go home without his money. I get the weirdest feeling when I handle the coin because I know I am the first person to hold it since its owner lost it and I wish I could give it back. It was minted in Canterbury - we are in the north of England so how did it get here? Maybe its owner (loser!) was a traveller or perhaps it had just been passed from hand to hand in trade from the south to the north. What a story it could tell about all the people who had bought and sold things with it before it was dropped in my garden. And what was my garden like 800 years ago? It was probably just a grassy hillside overlooking a stream in the bottom of the valley because our village grew up around a gunpowder works around 200 years ago.
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