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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,448 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
851 Posts |
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Valued Member
Canada
98 Posts |
A more detailed article was published on CTV News Atlantic 2 days ago. It's certainly quite the find and I'm curious what other (non-coin) things they've unearthed at the same site.
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Moderator
 United States
187702 Posts |
Very interesting!  |
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Valued Member
Canada
480 Posts |
An Anglo-French piece, from Calais, during the period just before Jean D'Arc, dating from 1422-1424, was discovered on a high point on Quadra Island, one of the West Coastal Islands between Vancouver Island and the mainland, in the early 1990's, I believe. I am a bit vague in the actual dates, but I did a talk about it at the CNA conference in Vancouver.
The place it was found was a high point on the island, with about a 270 degree view, where a lookout could have been posted to watch for enemy ships. It was found, about 1 meter deep in the soil, when the property owner was building a cement walkway. He thought it was a bottle cap.
I researched it at UBC for several hours. I did a talk saying it was evidence that Captain Drake had visited the west coast, a lot further north than San Francisco Bay. He appearantly had put the latitude down 20 degrees further south than the actual,in case he was caught by the Spanish. Drake reported glaciers and volcanos further north, evidence that he sailed to the Alaska panhandle, at least. He reported leaving a large plaque, claiming the whole area for England, in the Courtenay- Comox area. His diary was released by the British Palace in the 1990's, Drake gave maps to the Dutch, who mapped the West Coast of North America in the early 1600's from his charting. Coinage of this period would still have been in circulation in England until the great recoinage of 1696, when hammered coins were removed from circulation.The later explorers, English and Spanish, were from after the recoinage, when struck coins were in circulation.
Thee was also a large denomination silver piece dating from the early 1600's, found in the Gorge, near Victoria , at the South end of Vancouver Island.
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Valued Member
Canada
363 Posts |
...@ coinsnpaper
the early English coin found at the Gorge was 1551 shilling found by a colleague of mine metal detecting in the area, no other finds from that early timeframe were discovered to date
Another find that I can vouch for is an early English hammered coin also found detecting at an early Acadian site in Atlantic Canada...not fully researched yet but it was much older than the site it was discovered at.
I feel really old coins stayed in circulation for as long as they were accepted including many foreign or outdated coins. And then theres the case of ancient coins also being found in north America..Roman and Greek coins discovered in the new world..its Oak Island all over again lol
It is intriguing to wonder how these "old" coins show up where they do and the stories they hold.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
617 Posts |
Thanks for sharing, I find these stories quite interesting.
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Valued Member
Canada
138 Posts |
I love this story as my collection is focused on all coins that circulated in Canada in reasonable quantity. Thanks for sharing it.
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Valued Member
Canada
217 Posts |
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Valued Member
Canada
363 Posts |
@Rockfish
Yep Bruce was the discoverer of that old shilling. He and other detectorists have made fantastic coin finds over the years that have amazing stories attached to them.
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Valued Member
Canada
217 Posts |
I would absolutely love to hear some of those stories and the coins associated with them.
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,448 |
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Posted 11/12/2021 11:17 am
