kimbershot
New member
I was fortunate enough to tour parts of Italy for the last several weeks. On one of our excursions, we visited the Pitti Palace and adjacent Boboli Gardens in Florence. This site dates back to the mid 1500's as a palace built by the Medici Family. Prior occupants in the area date back to the Roman era and before. While walking through the garden area on a gravelroad, I noticed a round hollow shape--in a washed out area of the road bed. Picking it up--it had a heft and patina, so I figured I had something different.
On our return to the hotel, I started googling to see what, if anything, my find could be. It didn't take long to get a few hits, with all leads heading towards identifying the item as either ancient celtic "ring money" (I think it's bronze-maybe silver-but I didn't want to ruin the patina) that could actually have been produced 800-500 B.C. or part of a harness junction for straps, that could date from the 1-2nd century A.D. Whatever the true identiy is--it's not worth a whole lot of money, but it's still pretty neat and was totally unexpected.
On our return to the hotel, I started googling to see what, if anything, my find could be. It didn't take long to get a few hits, with all leads heading towards identifying the item as either ancient celtic "ring money" (I think it's bronze-maybe silver-but I didn't want to ruin the patina) that could actually have been produced 800-500 B.C. or part of a harness junction for straps, that could date from the 1-2nd century A.D. Whatever the true identiy is--it's not worth a whole lot of money, but it's still pretty neat and was totally unexpected.
