17th century rare gold coin recovered in N.L.
Ken Meaney , Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, June 13, 2008
Call it the 17th century equivalent of losing your bank card - and then picture the owner losing his mind trying to find it. Sometime around 1627, the owner of a very valuable gold coin lost it at an early British colony on Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula.
Archeologist Jim Tuck, who dug the rarity out of the stone footing of a house this week at the Colony of Avalon, says how it got there is anybody’s guess, but the erstwhile owner - maybe the man who founded it in 1621, Lord Baltimore, himself - didn’t let it go very easily.
“It’s a very valuable piece of stuff. I’m amazed at the kinds of things people will lose. I believe whoever lost it spent a long time trying to get it back,” he said with a laugh.
17th century gold coin found in stone footing of a house this week at the Colony of Avalon.
The loonie-sized Scottish coin is 22-karat gold and weighs about five grams, worth about $143 Cdn today. When originally issued, it was worth six British pounds (or 120 shillings), which represented a lot of money for its owner.
“It’s difficult to put a price on it in today’s terms. But it probably represents something like four months’ salary for the purchasing agent for the King of England at the time. I don’t know what that person would make today, but it’s a hell of a lot more than (six pounds),” Tuck said.
The “Sword and Sceptre” coin dated 1601 was issued during the reign of King James VI of Scotland two years before he ascended the throne of England as King James I.
It features the crowned arms of Scotland (rampant lion) on the obverse surrounded by the Latin inscription, “James VI, by the Grace of God, King of Scots.”
The reverse features a crossed sword and sceptre, flanked by two thistles - all below a crown. The reverse Latin legend reads, “The safety of the people is the supreme law.”
“It’s probably the the most unusual and valuable thing from this early period (ever found). I don’t know of any other (complete) gold coins from any other land archeological sites in eastern North America or Canada,” said Tuck, who has been excavating the site of the colony since the early 1990s. “Those underwater guys are always finding them by the bushel from ships and stuff.”
Tuck says when he first saw it, he didn’t believe it.
“At first I thought it must be something that came out of the inside of a soft drink cap or something like that, you know, a piece of gold-coloured foil because you just don’t expect anything like that,” he said.
“(But) gold is such nice stuff - it doesn’t rust or corrode or anything. As soon as the dirt began to brush off you could see there was lettering around the rim and the crest and stuff. So it was pretty exciting for a few minutes there.”
Tuck figures it was lost and not part of a stash of coins hidden to protect it from French raiders.
“It’s much too early. The context is wrong for the French raid (1696) or even the Dutch raid of 1673. Unfortunately. It’d be nice to find a horde of these things. That’ll never happen.”
The coin is being examined and cleaned at the Colony of Avalon Conservation Laboratory.
Baltimore’s colony left substantial remains. Archeologists have uncovered over a million artifacts to date, including gold rings, Portuguese ceramics and other unusual objects, as well as a blacksmith shop, a stone-walled well, a sea-flushed toilet and the “prettie (pretty) street” described in early accounts of the settlement.
There is also evidence of earlier occupations by Beothuks and Basque fishermen.
Baltimore, born George Calvert, eventually gave up the Newfoundland colony, after complaining about French raids and winters that lasted from October to May. He was granted land in Maryland in the United States where the city of Baltimore is named after the family.
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