A coin once used to pay for a bus ride in Leeds in the 1950s has been revealed to be more than 2,000 years old, according to a Leeds City Council press release published March 9. The coin, recently donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries, was originally minted by Carthaginians — part of the Phoenician culture — in the Spanish city of Cadiz during the 1st century B.C.
The discovery came decades after the coin first appeared in everyday circulation, when it was unknowingly handed to a local bus driver and later set aside by a transport cashier who noticed it did not belong among British currency.
A Coin That Stood Out
That cashier, James Edwards, worked for Leeds City Transport collecting fares from bus and tram drivers. At the end of each day, he would sort through the coins, pulling out anything foreign or unusable.
Rather than discard them, he kept them — and passed them on to his grandson.
“My grandfather would come across coins which were not British and put them to one side, and when I went to his house, he would hand me a few,” Peter Edwards, 77, said in the Leeds City Council press release.
The coins were stored in a small wooden chest, where they remained for decades, largely untouched but never entirely forgotten.
A Lingering Curiosity
Even among that collection, one coin stood apart.
“It was not long after the war, so I imagine soldiers returned with coins from countries they had been sent to,” Peter said. “Neither of us were coin collectors, but we were fascinated by their origin and imagery — to me they were treasure.”
Still, this particular coin resisted easy explanation. Its markings hinted at something older, something distant.
Years later, that curiosity led Peter to investigate further.
A Connection to the Ancient World
His research revealed that the coin came from an ancient Carthaginian settlement on the Spanish coast.
“On one side it bears the face of the god Melqart, resembling the Greek hero Herakles and wearing his famed lionskin headdress,” the Leeds City Council press release said. “At that time, some Phoenician coins carried Greek imagery to make them more appealing to traders.”
What had once passed through a bus fare box was now understood as an artifact from a civilization that existed thousands of years ago.
Returning It to History
Recognizing its age and significance, Peter chose to donate the coin so it could be studied and preserved.
“My first thought when I found out its origin was that I would like to return it to an institute where it could be studied by all,” he said.
The coin is now part of the collection at Leeds Discovery Centre, where it joins artifacts spanning cultures and centuries.
“My grandfather would be proud to know, as I am, that the coin is coming back to Leeds,” he added.
“It’s incredible to imagine how this tiny piece of history created by an ancient civilization thousands of years ago has somehow made its way to Leeds and into our collection,” Councillor Salma Arif said.
“Museums like ours are not just about preserving objects, they’re also about telling stories like this one and inspiring visitors to think about the history that’s all around us, sometimes in the most unlikely of places,” she added.
A Mystery That Remains
Despite its newly uncovered past, one part of the story is still unknown.
How the coin traveled from an ancient Mediterranean settlement to a mid-20th century bus route in northern England remains unclear.
“However, how it got there will always be a mystery,” Peter said.
And in that unanswered question, the coin continues its journey — not just through history, but through imagination.
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