Rare silver coin portraying King Charles I discovered in a field in Maryland

I received this article in my Live Science email this morning...I don't collect ancient coins but I found it very interesting and thought I'd share it with those who do.

https://www.livescience.com/rare-si...7062b52439b82e6b252c84a38178fa5e9348288b21721

 

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Very cool. Thanks for sharing

 

You're welcome...I'm glad you enjoyed the article!

 

Thanks, good read

 

You're welcome!

 

Thanks for sharing this! I was born and raised in Maryland, but I never got to that part of the "western shore". I always went no further than the slot machines located along Rte. 301.

 

Fascinating article.

Here is my one and only coin from the period.

 

The problem with using coins for dating is they are long lasting. They can be used to prove it does not date BEFORE the date struck, but if I find a wheat cent in a new home does that mean the home is really older than I thought? They have found Roman coins in NYC harbor, does that prove the Romans sailed there or maybe its was accidental from 19th century ballast picked up in Europe? Does a medieval Zanzibar coin found in Australia "prove" Africans traveled to Australia regularly, or the coin was valued at silver and was transported hundreds or years later? These are real life claims.

Pottery, and other household goods are WAY more important for dating sites. Coins are always troublesome in that regard.

Btw OP, 1633 is actually late medieval, not an ancient coin by any definition. Just FYI for coin categories. I am a big ancient collector of most cultures, but don't know much about late medieval English coins.

 

FWIW, Kent Fort was established on Kent Island on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland about 1631.

Kent Island (Maryland) - Wikipedia

 

I meant time of deposition of the coin sir, sorry if it was not clear. A coin can prove it was not lost BEFORE the date of minting, but cannot ever prove it was not lost AFTER the date of minting. Archeologists try too hard to use the date of the coin as the date of the site, since coins are easier to date than other artifacts usually. That was my point sir. I had a relative find an ancient Jewish coin in Kentucky in the early 1900's. They wrote a newspaper article about it, with the author postulating if the ancient Jews visited KY 2000 years ago. Its a natural tendency to assume a coin date somehow "proves" a site is that old.

Remember 17th century coins were commonly in circulation in the 19th century. Coin collecting is a more modern invention for the most part. In the 1950's 19th century coins were commonly found in circulation here.

 

I would call it early modern...medieval period is definitely over by the 1600's.

 

I was not doubting (or contesting) anything you said. I was just commenting about the history of Maryland as I know it. As it happens, the first time my family traveled east from Rockville, Maryland across the Chesapeake Bay via Rte. 50 to Ocean City, Maryland was in 1952. Rte. 50 traverses Kent Island, and I have made that trip countless times. I even remember seeing the Historical Plaque as you enter Kent Island proclaiming that it is the oldest settlement in Maryland.

 

I don't think 17th-century English coins were commonly in circulation in 19th century Maryland! Especially buried in a 17th-century cellar of a fort that was only in use for a limited period of time. It wasn't found lying on the ground or just under the surface. Or in England. As the article explains, the coin simply confirms that this was a very early fort, because by the time later ones were built, English coins like that weren't being used as currency at all; they had been replaced by tobacco.

I agree that 1633 is considered "early modern" for England, numismatically and otherwise.

 

Interesting article. And I agree that coins provide a terminal date for a structure or archaeological site. (Surely it cannot be dated to before the time of the issuing authority). Hence the Harzhorn battlefield site in Northern Germany cannot have been prior to the time of Severus Alexander (whose coins were found amongst the military artifacts) but easily could have been in the reign of Maximinus Thrax.

My connection with Maryland is just that I was born in Annapolis while my Dad was an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy.

 

And, every time I crossed the Severn River on Rte. 50, I always looked to the south toward that storied campus.

 

Nice to see you again. Your a good man

 

For historians and archaeologists coins are useful in dating things but usually in tandem with other goods to get the overall time frame of a complex. Coins and pottery usually help in dating each-other but these datings are often fluid and span over periods of time. Usually at least years if not decades during which a certain type was legal tender.