Who Here Will Dare Attempt to Solve the 237-Year-Old Mystery of The Medford Copper Hoard
JCH22
Posts: 160 ✭✭✭
Thaddeus Mason Harris (1768-1842) was a Unitarian minister, Harvard Libarian, Masonic Grand Master, and author in Boston.
In 1808, he wrote to future President John Quincy Adams, then Corresponding Secretary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, to recount a remarkable discovery of copper coins at Medford, Mass in 1787. That letter with drawings follows below.
Note—I have been unable to find additional information on the coins-- whereabouts/disposition.
Also note, space aliens is NOT an acceptable solution 
6
Comments
Is time travel an acceptable solution?
Never heard of this. Are any of the specimens still around to view?
Having fun while switching things up and focusing on a next level PCGS slabbed 1950+ type set, while still looking for great examples for the 7070.
It's all a big old conspiracy, fwiw
Have never heard of this before.
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"To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin
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I 'm sorry--but got to reject your guess. Aliens is not an acceptable response, and CaptHenway has already guessed time traveler
Haven't been able to find any follow up to the story!
These coins are in a big old crate in the same Area 51 warehouse as the ark of the covenant. Professor Jones told me so.
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Here you go:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/17th-century-coins-found-fruit-grove-solve-pirate-mystery-180977401/
Here's another story with a picture of a copper Arabic coin found in New England. Not "square," but not "round" either. I could see somebody who did not know coins calling it "square."
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/arabian-coins-pirate-heist-1957291
Look at the Arabic writing on the coins in the picture of the old story.
TD
I would consider remnants; cheap copper coins used as ship ballast, from trade involving the east Indies. That's Arabic script; I would guess somewhere in the India-Indonesia axis. And, they're upside down.
Ed. S.
(EJS)
General theory on ballast and "out of place coins"
Identifying Ancient Coins Deposited with Modern Ships’ Ballast: A Problem for Distribution Studies?
Ryan H. Wilkinson
American Journal of Numismatics (1989-), Second Series, Vol. 32 (2020), pp. 169-178 (10 pages)
Paywalled.....https://www.jstor.org/stable/27113058
Perfectly legal foreign copper coins imported as ballast were a valuable commodity for their copper content. Stolen coins from a pirate atrocity for which the King of England has put a price on your head would be buried.
A really interesting read. Thanks for posting it!
@CaptHenway,
Knew a little bit about piracy in the Caribbean when I opened this thread, but not in New England . Great articles!.
Arrest warrant issued by Parliament for Every--500 pounds placed on his head, 50 on crew members
If you had some Arabic coins that tied you to that 50 Pound reward on your head, wouldn't you bury them?
So you are backtracking on your time traveler hypothesis then?
Started thread as a lighthearted piece on a forgotten folktale (or so I thought). But looks to me like you have offered a very probable explanation. That was an unexpected, but very welcome surprise.
An aside--Was interesting to see how those at the time were trying to unravel what we today know as “Indian Burial Mounds.”
Were they on the way to, or from, Oak Island? 🙄
Having fun while switching things up and focusing on a next level PCGS slabbed 1950+ type set, while still looking for great examples for the 7070.
Thanks, Cap. Great info. Have never heard of coins for ballast. Love new facts.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
Where did you get the item from?
Thank you. I shall inform the Academy of the new information!!!!
Not ballast- too many of the same type in one place and not enough total weight to serve as ballast. This is a hoard of coins-not dead weight. This is a few pounds of coins-not tons.
Pirates don't steal copper- just silver, gold and jewels.
Probably just coins brought from Europe during the 1600s or 1700s-maybe NOT for trade but for use as metal. I have offered this theory several times in Oak Island threads. There was very little copper being mined in the U.S. then. Our needs came from Europe. Maybe carried here by an Islamic or Indian person but maybe by a European who had acquired them via the Silk Road. This copper was useful and tradeable.
Yes, coins HAVE been found in ballast. Ancient bronzes can still be found along the banks of the Tiber River as well as many other shoreline locations in Europe. Scoop up a couple of tons of sand and gravel and you may very well be bringing a few ancient (or just older) coins to the New World. It's happened before. But only a few coins along with lots of sand and rocks.
No, I would melt them.
But this wouldn't happen since pirates don't steal copper.
@sellitstore . I was working at a conven store once when a guy wearing a hoodie ran by and stole a large plastic bag of garbage we had set out front to get out of the way. I would never presume that their is anything people might not steal. James
We are talking the late 1600’s here. How common are furnaces capable of melting copper?
If you are a pirate looting a ship and there are barrels or bags or whatever full of coins in a secure area in the hold, are you going to stop and open them or just take them and look at them later?
OK, I stand corrected. Pirates steal copper, sometimes, by accident.
What does that Occum guy tell us? An early European's or Middle Easterner's hoard or Pirate Treasure! I'll stick with my theory that it was brought here as potentially useful metal.
Sure, there was iron and silver being forged here in the 1600s, since 1646 in Saugus, MA and Hull, with silver in 1652. And for nearly 10,000 years in the upper midwest, too! Copper was forged HERE before any other place in the World! It must not be too hard to do.