A 600-year-old gold coin found its way to an archaeologist Edward Hynes. Blake found it on the south coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Altogether, the coin questions conventional historical accounts of the time of European interaction with the area.
The 600-Year-Old Gold Coin Is a Henry VI Quarter Noble
Provincial archaeologist James Blake said on Wednesday he knew he was looking at something special, when it comes to the rare coin. Edward Hynes sent him photos of a gold coin he’d found past summer. After that, it is determined to be about 600 years old. The 600-year-old gold coin also predates documented European contact with North America since the Vikings.
“It’s surprisingly old”, Brake said in an interview. “It’s a pretty big deal.” How, when and why the coin wound up on the island of Newfoundland is still a mystery. Hynes reported his discovery to the provincial government, as required under Canada’s Historic Resources Act.
Hynes found the artifact at an undisclosed archaeological site somewhere along Newfoundland’s south coast. Experts decided to not discover the exact location, Brake said, so as not to attract treasure seekers.
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterThrough consultation with a former curator at the Bank of Canada’s currency museum, the determination is that the 600-year-old gold coin is a Henry VI quarter noble. The coin’s face value is one shilling and eight pence. Coinage took place in London between 1422 and 1427.
The coin highlights Newfoundland and Labrador’s archaeological heritage
The 600-year-old-coin’s coinage took place about 70 years before John Cabot landed on Newfoundland’s shores in 1497. But the coin’s age doesn’t mean someone from Europe was on the island before Cabot, Brake said.
The coin was not in use when it got lost, according to Berry. The precise route taken by the gold coin to Newfoundland and Labrador is the subject of great conjecture. Blake also said the 600-year-old gold coin will likely be displayed publicly at The Rooms museum in the provincial capital of St. John’s.
“Between England and here, people over there were not yet aware of Newfoundland or North America at the time that this was minted”, he said. The coin’s finding highlights Newfoundland and Labrador’s fascinating archaeological heritage.
Icelandic sagas date back to 1001 feature accounts of the advent of the Vikings. Also, L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, has historical traces of a Norse. It is Unesco’s World Heritage site in 1978.
In 1583, Newfoundland became England’s first possession in North America. “There’s been some knowledge of a pre-16th century European presence here for a while, you know, excluding Norse and so on”, Brake said. “The possibility of perhaps a pre-16th century occupation would be amazing and significant in this part of the world”.
