DOES THE TURIN SHROUD HAVE FIRST CENTURY COIN PRINTS?

The Turin Shroud, reputed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, was carbon dated in 1988 to having been made between 1260 and 1390 AD. So it's too young to be the burial cloth of Jesus. This has not stopped religious cranks from trying to prove the cloth is older than that.

Josh McDowell wrote,

Reports are being circulated of a coin over the right eye that dates back to the years of A.D. 29–32. The Reverend Francis L. Philas, Professor of Theology at Loyola University in Chicago, reports that four Greek letters, UCAI, on the coin are part of the inscription “of Tiberius Caesar.” It is the authors’ understanding that the quite unintelligible letters read, UKAI, and that the coin striker would have had to be either drunk or ignorant to strike it that way. The coin theory raises a lot of questions concerning the Shroud. The theory to explain the image transfer to the cloth required that the body had not been washed because the dried sweat was necessary to magnify the rays. Also, the various image transfer theories indicate that the body had not been prepared for burial and thus not washed. It is hard to imagine that a body that had not been washed or prepared for burial would have coins put over the eyes (in this case, over the right eye).

THE COINS
 
 

 
IT IS IMAGINED THAT THE COIN SHOWN ABOVE LEFT A MARK ON THE EYELID ON THE CLOTH! THE THIRD PICTURE IS A THREE-D SHOT OF THE REGION ON THE CLOTH THAT ALLEGEDLY BACKS THIS UP!

A professor from Loyola University in Chicago, Francis L. Filas, said that coins can be seen on the Shroud’s eyes. This nonsense which has forced sceptics to spend time on refuting it is refuted in the pro-authenticity site http://www.skepticalspectacle.com/

The coins are called leptons and were minted by Pilate in 31 and 32 AD another reason why leptons would not have been used for Pilate killed Jesus. The right eye is supposed to show a staff like a bishops crook with letters around it and the roughly roundish shape of the coin on the eye. No coin is going to sit perfectly flat on the eye so you have to laugh at the suggestion that the shape is on the eye if the coins were taken off when the man was laid out. If the mark fits the coin then it is not a coin but just plain prints that some people think they can see a coin shape in.

Also, how could the image of the coins transfer to the cloth when the image was caused by the body and by the blood? We would expect to see clean roundish patches on the eyes. Yet the book, Verdict on the Shroud, says that the man may have been buried with coins on the eyelids.

The head of Pilate, can according to some, can be allegedly be seen from a coin on the right eyelid of the Shroud man. But this image would not be is perfectly clear so it could be anything. Actually, it is far from even half distinct. It is easy to see faces and patterns in blots and blobs that are not really there or there by design - we all do that and the cloth has a roughish surface too which causes too much distortion to justify the claim about the coins. But it is probable that burying people with coins on their eyes was not done in the first century (Biblical Exegesis and Church Doctrine, page 151). It is hard to believe that coins with Roman emblems on them would have been placed on Jesus when Rome through Pilate killed him. Also, would they put pagan emblems on the eyes of God’s Son? Some Jews made things like coins to put on the eyelids.

Some try to make out they can see the following coin on the shroud but it should be too detailed and small  to leave any clear print. 

Filas studied 3-D images of the eyelids and though he could read UCAI from Tiberius Caisaros which was inscribed on coins in those days (page 19). But when you look at the pictures you see you can imagine other letters that were not on these coins just as clearly. They are all in the head. Good researchers and even the pro-Shroud STURP insist that the coins are imagined (page 19, Turin Shroud).

Jesus would have died with his eyes closed because the blood would have been running into them from the crown of thorns so there was no need for anything on the lids to keep them shut. He would have closed his eyes on passing gradually into a coma before death.

A pro-shroud source says the fibres are too "coarse to resolve the rather subtle and very tiny inscription on a dime sized ancient coin. I believe the fibers are much too large to resolve such fine detail. Also, Filas found these coin "images" on the Shroud using the 1933 Enrie photographs. He personally mentioned to me that he could not achieve the same results with the 1978 photographs. Unfortunately, the 1933 photographs have been copied and recopied multiple times and I believe the "images" he discovered are artifacts of clumped photographic grain, caused by the recopying and enhancement of grain structure from earlier generation photographs. This grain clumping is very common on high contrast or contrast enhanced films when copied over multiple generations.

Filas' research described a large number of points of congruence between the coin image he found on the Shroud and the actual coin. I believe one would get matching points of congruence for practically anything one looked for, since a highly magnified random sampling of clumped grain structure would have the same effect as a sky full of clouds: you could see whatever you wish to see, and no two people would necessarily see the same thing."