Green Relic Hand: Copper Coin Preserves 150-Year-Old Hungarian Infant

Archaeologists in southern Hungary uncovered a 150-year-old infant hand preserved as a green mummy after a grieving mother reportedly placed a 19th‑century Kreuzer copper coin in the child’s fist. High copper exposure caused an antimicrobial reaction that preserved soft tissue, with copper levels about 500 times typical. The ritual, likely intended to pay Saint John the Baptist for heavenly baptism for an unbaptized infant, also involved sealing the child in a pot and burying it secretly; researchers found two other similar, inexplicably preserved infant burials nearby. This represents a rare case of copper-driven natural mummification rather than a deliberate process.