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An almost 400-year-old silver coin found in a field in Maryland suggests that the remains of a nearby fort are all that's left of one of the earliest English colonial settlements in the Americas, archaeologists said.
We coin collectors like to call them "coins". Archaeologists like to call them "dating evidence".
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I wonder what the oldest coin every found in the US is. Anyone know?
It does depend on your definition of "found".
There have been numerous reports of pre-Columbian coins being discovered in North America. Most of these claims come with very little scientific, archaeological-quality evidence. Much like claims of UFOs and Bigfoot. And extraordinary claims, like "the ancient Romans discovered and colonized America", require extraordinary evidence; you need more proof of that claim than a Roman coin found in a Midwestern creek or a Roman statue-head in Veracruz harbour.
After all, a thief might steal my collection of ancient coins, and they then get scattered in a nearby field once the thief realises he's not going to be able to easily swap them for cash. Some years later, a metal detectorist finds them. Have they "found ancient coins"? Absolutely. Are they genuine? Sure. Should they count as the "oldest coins ever found in the area"? In the context of archaeological finds, no.
Another good example is Chinese coins. Archaeologists can readily find thousand-year-old Song Dynasty coins in old Chinese settlements and mining areas. But it's not evidence that Gavin Menzies was right and that the mediaeval Chinese Empire discovered America; it's just evidence that Chinese gold miners liked taking thousand-year-old artifacts with them when they left China.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
Posted 05/21/2021 09:37 am
