The Daily Mail has this week published an article about the recent discovery of a remarkable Byzantine coin. This bronze follis coin, minted in the period 969 – 976 AD, was discovered by historian Justin Robinson in 2018 and shows an image of Jesus with unusual features. What makes the coin particularly fascinating is that these same unusual features are also visible on the Shroud image. This clearly indicates that they had been copied from the Shroud by the artist who produced the die for this coin.
These distinctive and unusual features include two long locks of hair on the left side of the head. It is particularly hard to understand why the engraver would create an image of Jesus with hair longer on one side than the other and depicted as two distinct locks unless he had faithfully copied what was believed to be a true likeness of Jesus.’
According to the Daily Mail article’s headline, this ancient coin ‘proves’ the Shroud of Turin is real. Unfortunately, The article is behind a paywall and so can only be read in full by subscribers. However other news websites have since reproduced the story of this remarkable discovery.
Details of the extraordinary similarities between the Shroud image and portraits of Jesus found on this and other Byzantine coins can be found on the Byzantine Coins page of this website.
