Ancient coin found in New England backy ard

[squirrel]

Personally, I think someone lost some jewelry.. anyone agree?

 

http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x124780161/Shekel-in-the-sand-How-did-2-000-year-old-coin-end-up-in-Manchester

 

(title should say BACK YARD, no BACKY ARD... oops.)

[ccg]

Most likely came from a collection. In colonial days given the shortage of change, anything passed as currency. I remember seeing a journal article that mentioned someone in the early days of Montreal getting a Constantius I bronze (follis?) in change, among other stuff.

[hiho]

I'm inclined to agree with Squirrel that the coin came from jewelry. Hard to say for sure though...

[mmarotta]

1. Carrying a shekel of Tyre in your pocket is unusual.

2. If you lost a Shekel of Tyre, you would search for it.

3. Nothing was said about the coin being in jewelry even though two (nominally) qualified people looked at: "wife's co-worker" and GJM Numismatics.

4. The distribution of ancient coins found in the Americas is not random, but is skewed to the East Coast.

5. I collect these stories. They go back to the Spanish, not surprisingly. Time and again an ancient coin is found, attributed by a professor at a nearby college, and then written off as a hoax or a prank.

 

6. When I lived in Albuquerque (2002-2003), a woman came to the local coin club with an ancient, a 3rd century bronze antoninianus, as I recall. The first member she met at the door directed her to the club president, saying that he is a high school history teacher. He identified the coin and said that it was probably dropped by some pioneer going West. She got her answer and was leaving. I tried to talk to her -- I got to see the coin, briefly -- but she had an answer that satisfied her from an "authority." But she said that her home is on the Rio Grande. When that coin was struck, the Rio Grande was wet from the Gulf of Mexico to its source.

 

7. If you have not read Kon-Tiki or read about the Olmec Heads, you may enjoy the opportunity to puzzle over some curiosities.

[squirrel]

 

 

7. If you have not read Kon-Tiki or read about the Olmec Heads, you may enjoy the opportunity to puzzle over some curiosities.

 

Well, Ive seen the TV documentaries on runic tablets found in the midwest, viking and templar finds up and down the east coast, etc.

Even read Erich Von Daniken back in the old days. Fact is, just because the coin found is 2000 years old, doesnt mean it wasnt placed there any time earlier than the day before it was "discovered" . More evidence, and lots of digging, is needed to prove those theories.

 

The property is the site of a grand golden age (1890's) water front summer "cottage" (aka mansion) once owned by a president of the Waltham Watch co, among other blue bloods over the past hundred years. Host no doubt to many a black tie gathering, I can easily imagine a naughty drunken couple rolling in the grass in a shady nook under the moonlight, and muffy loses an earing along with her virtue....

 

[mmarotta]

Well, Ive seen the TV documentaries on runic tablets ... ... just because the coin found is 2000 years old, doesnt mean it wasnt placed there any time earlier than the day before it was "discovered".

 

Yes, granted. I apologize, but my first post on this was lost and in my rewrite, I dropped the acknowledgement that New England is an old place and we do not know the true history of this coin. So, yes, the easiest answer is most likely.

 

"More digging" is probably a waste of time. People go to Chickamauga with metal detectors and find tourist shop fakes of "Civil War coins" and insist that as the coin was "deep" in the ground, that it must be from the Civil War. But soil turns. A couple of years ago, for a geology class, we went to a local quarry after the first thaw to find Odivician and Cambrian fossils that came up over the winter -- being on the surface does not mean they were recently deposited.

 

There is a world of difference between Thor Heyerdahl and Erik von Daniken, between Kennewick Man and the Kensington Runes. Not only do I not watch Discovery, neither do I watch Nova. Rather than laughing this off with a dirty joke, I printed the story out for further research later -- including your identification of the find site as an old resort or summer mansion for Waltham of the Watches.