Archeologists at a dig near the southern shore community of Ferryland have unearthed the first whole gold coin ever found in Newfoundland.

The Scottish coin, a Sword and Sceptre dated 1601, was found at the Colony of Avalon archeological dig on June 10. It went on display at the Colony’s interpretation centre on Friday.

According to a news release, the coin was issued during the reign of King James VI of Scotland two years before he ascended the throne of England as King James I following the death of Queen Elizabeth I.

The coin is about the size of a loonie, weighs about five grams and is made of 22 karat gold. It had a value of six pounds (120 shillings), which represented a lot of money at the time.

“If you do it based on wages, that amount … would be about four months wages for the person who did all the marketing for the King’s household,” archeologist Jim Tuck told CBC Radio.

The coin, discovered on the second day of this season’s digging season, was found on top of a footing that Tuck thinks dates from the very early years of the Colony.

“We were exposing that footing and scraping off the top layer … scraping the dirt and leaves and bottle caps and junk off the top where we had stopped last year and lo and behold, here was this gold coin which I thought first was the inside … the liner for a bottle cap or something like that, but within a few seconds it was pretty obvious that it was real gold and that it was something we had never seen before,” he said.

Even though the coin has a split in it, Tuck said it’s in very good shape, and he wonders how it survived not only 400 years, but how it remained hardly worn between 1601 to 1621 – the time between when the coin was struck and the settlement was established. (more…)

An amazing Braided Hair large cent struck on a half cent planchet will be making its first public auction appearance at Heritage’s 2008 Baltimore ANA Signature® Auction. The coin has been consigned by a very private Northwest family whose members were unaware of its rarity or significance. The newly discovered rarity will be sold July 30-August 2, 2008, and the lot listing will be available online at HA.com during early July.

“In more than three decades as a numismatist,” commented Heritage’s Senior Numismatist Mark Borckardt, “and after having examined tens of thousands of large cents, I have Never seen a similar error. As soon as I spotted this amazing error coin, I gathered all of the senior numismatists, and none of them could recall a similar piece. When they heard that the coin had sat on the front porch of a house for fifty years in a Mason jar – along with a bunch of other old coins in cans and jars – they were equally astounded! It quickens all of our hearts to imagine that there are still major rarities out there waiting to be discovered!”

Bob Merrill, the former Director of Heritage’s numismatic auctions, discovered the coin while visiting the consignors. “When I pulled the coin out of the Mason jar, I knew that it was fairly unusual, but my attention was rather distracted by the 1794 dollar that came tumbling out behind it. Amazingly, our staff experts in Dallas were able to find a pedigree for the 1794 dollar from 1914!

The Braided Hair large cent error is sized midway between a large cent and a half cent; without an immediate restraining collar, the half cent flan expanded well beyond its normal diameter during striking. Heritage’s experts in Dallas required extra time to examine the error, so it was not included with the rest of the Northwest Collection in the May 2008 Signature Auction.” (more…)

Egypt’s massive storage of artifacts still buried underneath of a pellicle of sand and soil is daily investigated by archaeologists. Indefatigable researches are conducted to extract history from beneath, to find clues on a nation’s past and to restore World history.

And thanks to its immense archaeological materials, scientists regularly unearth new items who change more or less our understanding of this great ancient civilization.

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced an interesting discovery. Gold coins forged by Roman Emperor Valens were unearthed at the astonishment of archaeologists; these findings represent the first of this kind in the Land of the Pyramids.

The two coins were found during excavations in the west part of St. Catherine’s monastery in Sinai. The image represented on the front side of the coins is very similar to that of Valens’ and specialists agreed that he is indeed.

Valens ruled the Eastern Roman Empire between 364  and 378 AD; his reign was nothing close to peaceful. He had to black-out the revolt by Procopius, and then fight the Sassanids, but the war with the Goths meant his end.

In 378 AD a battle was to be fought which will decisively change roman history. Near the town of Adrianople, now Edirne, Valens organized his forces in battle formations. He wanted a quick victory against the unprepared Goths. He had received word of a huge gothic army walking the fields of his Empire, but when scouts returned they reported a far smaller number, thus giving the Romans numerical superiority. Valens couldn’t wait, he wanted a victory, a quick success would give him eternal glory. Following his probably egoistic reason he ignored messages from the Western Emperor Gratian, who urged him not to attack but wait for his reinforcements. All in vain, he saw an opportunity and was keen to use it. (more…)