Dug a hammered silver coin - but its not Spanish

[screwynewy]

I hit my favorite colonial site that I always do while at the coast of NC which has produced a lot of colonial relics including a 1/2 Reale, KG II halfpenny, shoe buckles, flint lock plate, and tons of buttons. I found a new area this weekend that I had not tried before and starting digging some interesting relics. I just bought an XP Deus and this was my very first hunt with it. Not being familier with the tones or VDI numbers I was going to dig everything, besides there is very little modern trash at this site. I got a nice smooth high tone hit reading 72 on the XP and flipped out the plug and saw a shimmer of silver. My first thought was what the hell is a pull tab doing here. Then I wiped away the sand and saw some symbols on it so I figured it was a silver cuff link until I wiped off the other side and saw more lettering so I immediatey say to myself "no freaking way" I just dug a Spanish cob. After closer inspection it didn't reconize any of the lettering or symbols to be Spanish but I knew for sure that it as a hammered coin and I was stoked.

A couple of tnet members on the "What Is It" forum suggested that it was Indian or Islamic so I emailed a foreign coin expert (Steve Album) and he promptly identified it as a Moroccan, silver muzuna of Isma’il al-Samin, 1672-1727, type A-584. So my next question is how the hell did this coin end up here? I have a couple of theories but no way to know for sure. The most probable theory is that it was dropped by an early settler being that this property is adjacent to a river which saw a good deal of activity in the 18th century. I doubt that it was a modern drop since there has been no activity on this property since the early 1800's. Feel free to offer your own ideas about how it go there.

I'm just excited to have dug my first hammered silver coin and oldest coin to date. I doubt many of these have been dug on US soil.

 

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[DocBeav]

Your idea of when it may have been dropped sounds good. If it was holed like it is I'm guessing it was worn as jewelry or as some sort of adornment to jewelry or clothing?

 

[vpnavy]

Nice find screwynewy.

 

[mercury1]

Wow that's a great find screwy. Sounds like you have a really great spot to hunt. Congrats.

 

[Wldbil]

Never seen anything like that... Very cool find!!! Congrats

 

[smokedaddy]

Nice, a hammered coin is on my list. Very nice find.

 

[screwynewy]

Thanks for the kind comments and replies. I showed this to my metal detecting club tonight and a couple guys suggested that it might have been brought back as a souvenier by a member of the US Navy or someone on a merchant marine ship in the early 1800's possibly during the 1st Barbary War around Northern Africa. The timing of this would make sense for the age of the site.

 

[yaxthri]

Great find and great research! Kudos!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

That's a great find and one that I certainly have not seen dug here in the US. When I first saw it I was reminded of another coin I dug many years ago in a War of 1812 camp. It was a thick and heavy late 1700s silver rupee from India with similar strange markings. It had a loop soldered to it, and was likely worn around the neck on a chain. I surmised that it was probably lost by a British soldier who had previously been stationed in India, which was a British colony at that time, and was brought back as a souvenir only to be lost here in Virginia. Not sure if that's the way it happened, but I like the story. Congrats again on a rare and interesting find.

 

[g-olden years]

FABULOUS! I just voted BANNER on this wonderful coin! You'd done the historical research on the area, dug 300-year old hammered foreign silver, present a good theory of why it showed up there, and the pics are good! Wow! Andi

 

[screwynewy]

Thanks Andi for the reconignition and banner vote. I honestly didn't have any expectation of this find making the banner but I did think that it might have generated a little more interest. Not everyday that you dig a hammered silver coin in the US. Regardless it's a find that I'll treasure and a moment that I will remember for years to come.

FABULOUS! I just voted BANNER on this wonderful coin! You'd done the historical research on the area, dug 300-year old hammered foreign silver, present a good theory of why it showed up there, and the pics are good! Wow! Andi

 

[gunsil]

Way cool piece!!! Knowing it came from a coastal area it could have been lost by a sailor who wore it as jewelry or for good luck. Moroccans and north Africans served on many trading vessels at that time. The Spanish traded a lot in north Africa as well as other European nations. I hate to say it because so many people seem to want to identify their finds with pirates, and few really are, but there were north African crew members on those type of ships and they were also known to have frequented that part of the world in that time span.

 

[cuzcosquirrel]

Could have been a keepsake from the Barbary Wars. "From the shores of Tripoli" no doubt.

 

[screwynewy]

Thanks for the information. Before finding this coin I had almost no knowledge about early American involvement in policing the seas of North Africa. That's one of the coolest things about this hobby how it makes learning about our countries history fun.

Way cool piece!!! Knowing it came from a coastal area it could have been lost by a sailor who wore it as jewelry or for good luck. Moroccans and north Africans served on many trading vessels at that time. The Spanish traded a lot in north Africa as well as other European nations. I hate to say it because so many people seem to want to identify their finds with pirates, and few really are, but there were north African crew members on those type of ships and they were also known to have frequented that part of the world in that time span.

Learning about this find brings a whole new meaning to this line in the Marines Hymn. Thanks for pointing that out.

Could have been a keepsake from the Barbary Wars. "From the shores of Tripoli" no doubt.