The lituus lepton (coin) is one of the coin images tentatively identified over one of the eyes of the man of the Shroud. Images of two coins, minted by Pontius Pilate for use by the Jewish population in Palestine, have been tentatively observed over both eyes of the man whose image is seen on the Shroud. But is the identification valid? Most shroud researchers seriously doubt this claim.
In 1978, scientists, including John P. Jackson and Eric J. Jumper, while working with NASA's VP-8 3-D Image Analyzer, discovered what appeared to be raised button-like shapes over each eye.
Then in 1980, Francis Filas, S.J., of Loyola University in Chicago and Michael Marx, an expert in classical coins, examined the area over the right eye and detected patterns of what appeared to be the letters UCAI (from TIBERIOU CAISARUS). They also found a lituus design (an auger's staff). Filas concluded that this was a lituus lepton coin minted by Pontius Pilate between 29 and 32 CE. Over the left eye, Filas also identified what he believed to be a Juolia lepton with a distinctive sheaf of barley design. The Juolia lepton was only struck in 29 CE in honor of Tiberius Caesar's wife, Julia.
Subsequent computerized image enhancement analysis at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University's Spatial Data Analysis Laboratory supports, though cautiously, the existence of the lituus lepton over the right eye and an outline of a coin over the left eye.
By overlaying polarized images, Alan Whanger at Duke University identified both coins. Alan found 74 points of congruence with an existing lituus lepton and 73 points with a Juolia lepton. But such identification is highly interpretive and other researchers do not find the same level of congruence. Many argue that congruence analysis, used for instance to match fingerprints, is valid for matching two identified samples (e.g. two fingerprints or partial fingerprints) but not a valid method for identifying a unknown sample (e.g. is it a fingerprint, is it a coin image).
