Charon penny
Charonspfennig find (here a Dupondius of Antoninus Pius ) as a grave object in a Roman skull in Spain (Museo de Prehistoria de Valencia , approx. 140–144 AD)
A so-called Charonspfennig is a coin that was originally placed under the tongue of Greeks who died in ancient times as a burial object before they were buried. The position of the coin in the mouth ensured that the deceased had it with him in the afterlife and was intended to serve as ferry money for the ferryman Charon for the passage of the dead across the Acheron , Styx and Lake Acherousia into the realm of the dead of Hades . Unburied dead, to whom Charon denied access, had to wander around the banks of the Acheron as a shadow for a hundred years in the belief system of the time. This burial custom was later adopted by the Romans and spread to other cultures. It lasted into the early Middle Ages .