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Archaeologists in Bulgaria have bring out a 700 - yr - honest-to-god smooth-spoken coin depicting Jesus on one side and a Serbian Martin Luther King on the other in the southeastern village of Rusokastro .
One side of the so - called " silvery penny " depicts Stefan Uroš II Milutin , a king of Serbia who greatly expanded his realm , alongside St. Stephen , the Burgas Museum , whose archaeologists are excavating the site , said in astatementtranslated from Bulgarian . The depicting of Jesus seated is exhibit on the other side of the coin . St. Stephen , who live in the first century and was kill for his beliefs , was mention a Protestant deacon by the 12 apostle .
A seated Jesus is depicted on one side of the silver coin recently discovered in Bulgaria.
This is the first sentence this eccentric of coin has been found in Rusokastro , which was a townspeople with a fortress at the sentence the coin was minted . The discovery shows that the coin had a larger circulation than previously earn archaeologist say in the statement .
Stefan Uroš II Milutin ( reign 1282 to 1321 ) vastly expanded the Serbian realm into southeastern Europe , the statement said . He was married as many as five times , and one of his wives was a Bulgarian princess . Milutin , also know as Holy King Milutin , was later canonized as a saint , and today his relics are preserve in St. Nedelya Church in Bulgaria ’s capital , Sofia .
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The other side of the coin depicts Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia, at left, along with St. Stephen at right.
Parts of the coin ’s design are imitate from coins that were coin in Venice . " As for the Christ , this coin is a unmediated copy of the seat Christ on Venetian coins,“Julian Baker , an adjunct keeper of medieval and modern coins at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford , England who is not take in the excavations , told Live Science in an electronic mail . coin from Venice had a repute as one of the most stable currencies in the Middle Ages for the consistence of their silver exercising weight , the statement say .
Venetian coin bug out show a seated Jesus during the late 12th century and copy a standardized image that was used in coin minted in theByzantine Empire , Baker said . He added that " the induct Christ became a very prominent iconographical twist from the 9th/10th " centuries and it is " no great surprise " that it is shown on coins .
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This fussy coin , with Jesus on one side and Stefan Uroš II Milutin on the other , is not unusual , Baker said . " This is quite a usual coin produced by the knightly Serbian realm in a period in which they were able to mint coinage in big quantity thanks to the [ silver ] mines which [ were ] on its dominion , " Baker sound out . " Such coin are very commonly found in the southern Balkans , mostly in the western half " in countries such as Serbia and Greece , Baker order . " A find from eastern Bulgaria is a routine less usual but is still all understandable . "
Jesus was often shown on gothic coins and , at sentence , some scholarly person have interpreted the seat he posture on as being a throne .
excavation at the site and depth psychology of the artifacts are on-going .
