1914

Several years ago I was walking my dog along a road where we regularly walked. The road has existed for hundreds of years, leading to fields surrounding the village, and is now covered in Tarmac. There is no footpath, so pedestrians walk in the roadway. As I walked I was listening to an audiobook by John Keegan about the 1914-1918 war. I was about halfway through the fist chapter dealing with the events leading up to the outbreak of war in 1914 when I noticed something sticking out from the road surface. I extracted it from the tar and found that it was an old one penny coin. I was startled to see that the year on the coin was 1914. The coin was in very good condition, showing almost no wear and must have been dropped in the roadway shorly after minting. However the road has been resurfaced and repaired many times since 1914. I am not a superstitious person but I confess to feeling that the coin had been waiting for me.