a roman coin that has baffled historians, thought to have been a fake for hundreds of years. a close look shows pit marks. these, and its crude design, led to the experts thinking it was made by forgers in the 18th century. oh, that s really nice around there. can we get a higher resolution image of that? but scientist paul pearson thought they were wrong. so he began a forensic investigation. silicon, oxygen, iron. under a high power microscope, he found scratches, which could only have been produced by rubbing together with other coins in purses. and a chemical analysis showed that it had been buried under the soil for hundreds of years. all clues that indicate that it was genuine. yeah, look at that. i think what we found is an emperor, an important historical figure in his own time, thought to have been a fake, been written off by all the experts and the historians. we ve found that he was real
a roman emperor in the third century who was written out of history as a fictional character really did exist according to new research. specialists have looked again at an ancient gold coin which bears the name and portrait of emperor sponsian but was believed to have been a fake until now. 0ur science correspondent pallab ghosh has been to the hunterian museum in glasgow, where the coin is on display. a roman coin that has baffled historians, thought to have been a fake for hundreds of years. a close look shows pit marks. these, and its crude design, led to the experts thinking it was made by forgers in the 18th century. oh, that s really nice around there. can we get a higher resolution image of that? but scientist paul pearson thought they were wrong. so he began a forensic investigation. silicon, oxygen, iron. under a high power microscope, he found scratches, which could only have been produced by rubbing
an ancient gold coin, once thought to be fake, has now revealed the existence of a third century roman commander. the coin bears the name and image of an historicalfigure, sponsian, who had previously been written out of the history books. here s 0ur science correspondent, pallab ghosh. a roman coin that has baffled historians, thought have been a fake for hundreds of years. a close look shows pit marks. these and its crude design led to the experts thinking it was made by forgers in the 18th century. oh, that s really nice around there. can we get a higher resolution image of that? but scientist, paul pierson, thought they were wrong. so he began a forensic investigation. silicon, oxygen, iron. under a high power microscope, he found scratches, which could only have been produced by rubbing together with other coins in purses. and a chemical analysis showed that it had been buried under the soilfor hundreds of years. all clues that indicate that it was genuine. yeah, look at that.
a roman coin that has baffled historians, thought to have been a fake for hundreds of years. a close look shows pit marks. these and its crude design led to the experts thinking it was made by forgers in the 18th century. oh, that s really nice around there. can we get a higher resolution image of that? but scientist, paul pearson thought they were wrong. so he began a forensic investigation. silicon, oxygen, iron. under a high power microscope, he found scratches, which could only have been produced by rubbing together with other coins in purses. and a chemical analysis showed that it had been buried under the soilfor hundreds of years. all clues that indicate that it was genuine. yeah, look at that. i think what we found is an emperor, an important historical figure in his own time, thought to have been a fake, been written off by all the experts and the historians. we ve found that he was real
by forgers in the 18th century. oh, that s really nice around there. can we get a higher resolution image of that? but scientist paul pearson thought they were wrong. so he began a forensic investigation. silicon, oxygen, iron. under a high power microscope, he found scratches, which could only have been produced by rubbing together with other coins in purses. and a chemical analysis showed that it had been buried under the soil for hundreds of years. all clues that indicate that it was genuine. yeah, look at that. i think what we found is an emperor, an important historical figure in his own time, thought to have been a fake, been written off by all the experts and the historians. we ve found that he was real and that he had a role in history. the coin is one ofjust four at glasgow university s hunterian museum. these three are of known roman emperors, but this one has been a real mystery.