The Queens head

Leaving Hedbury Quarry yesterday something green caught my eye sticking out of the mud. A bronze Penny coin of Victoria, minted in 1895, nearly 5.4 million were cast that year.  I suppose they'd have remained in circulation until 1971 and decimalization, pennies with subsequent Kings and Queens heads on them were produced until just prior to decimalization. It's worn, but not so much that you can't easily read the lettering and see some of the detail. I've seen much worse. I have a mid Victorian gothic style silver Florin which I use when I 'ask the coin', the details are worn smooth in part, the national shields and Queens Head especially.  I reckon this penny could have been out of circulation for some years. I like to think that this coin, being as old as it is, was dropped by one of the quarrymen maybe, dropped in much ground conditions we have today, and quickly swallowed by the mud. Or maybe by a child playing here in a summer of the middle part of the last century, lost in the long grasses. There's always a story, though rarely to be told.