Many came to the US as ballasts in ships from Europe. They are just junk Late Romans, and do not mean Rome explored Huntsville.
It is a small Falling Horseman (FH3) type of Constantius Gallus with illegible mintmark. If it was found in the soil of Alabama, I suspect it was lost in modern times. Each mint had a distinctive style which a specialist might recognise but my level of ignorance requires coins have the mintmark at the bottom of the reverse. Your coin shows REPARATIO fottowing the FEL TEMP well.
Early European contact in the New World is a common trope of psuedoarchaeology. Odd ball finds such as this just adds fuel to the misguided fire.
It was found metal detecting close to a Army Corps of Engineers project site on the Alabama River built in the sixties. I figure veteran of World War Two brought it back from Europe when they came home from the war and lost it while working on the project. I do appreciate the information.
I dunno, John. That is too rational of an explanation. Too sane a thought. I really think it fell off the hood of an Alien construction ship. They were delivering some blocks to build the pyramids. He picked it up as a souvenir, left it on the hood of his spacecraft. Then he flew off for another load, and it fell when he was over Alabama. True Story. I know the guy! (Now that I have said it on the Internet, it has to be fact.)
You can find on JSTOR an interesting article written by J.F.Epstein who reported discoveries of Roman coins in America back to the 16th century. Here is an excerpt : (Pre-Columbian Old World Coins in America: an Examination of the Evidence.)
Decades from now some ships will leave the US with ballast of all the junk coins our mint is making. And, decades later someone will find one and will be confused.
I have always wanted to be the Johnny Appleseed of Roman coins. Take my bags of low quality LRB's and sprinkle them everywhere that I travel. Focus on North America. Then, in 2,000 years, the History Books will be rewritten that Canada and United States were actually COLONIES of the Roman Empire...
If on a river, don't discount the ballast idea. I have read hundreds have been found at a time in US harbors from this source. Fair enough explanation. Sorry for being curt earlier. We have too many people come here trying to say coin X being found location Y "proves" something.
A pocket piece that somebody lost. Did I mention that Gordian III antoniniani were found in circulation in New York? Yep, the big ones are almost the size of pre-1964 U.S. silver quarters.
