[SunkenCiv]

I’ll quibble a bit on the idea that a prospector losing a good luck piece requires that Australia was invisible to seafarers.

That's not what I said, but nice try. The Romans got to America, so having a visit from the Byzanitines would not be surprising.

[hanamizu]

I’ll quibble a bit on the idea that a prospector losing a good luck piece requires that Australia wasN’T invisible to seafarers.

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Sorry, didn’t mean to misquote you. And I don’t mean to claim it was impossible for the coin to have gotten to Australia in ancient time—just much more likely that the coin was lost relatively recently.

Don’t know about Romans getting here. They certainly had the technology and the Quetzalcoatl myth sure makes it seem like someone from the old world made it to Central America long before the Spanish.

As to the Byzantines, it is unlikely that they left their coins on bridgework that was made many centuries after they fell to the Ottomans. Point being, an old coin does not mean it was left in “old times”.

And you will agree, the coin in question is copper/bronze. They were made up to the size of hockey pucks. A 47mm Ptolemy II sold for something like $50, which would indicate that bronze coins of that size would not be that rare or expensive to carry as a good-luck charm. Anyway, here’s a website where you can explore the world of Ptolemeic (and other ancient coinage).

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/egypt/ptolemy_II/i.html