Buried in a Truro yard, a 313-year-old find
RedSoxinNYC
Posts: 321
Interesting story from Truro, MA
Buried in a Truro yard, a 313-year-old find
Silver sixpence is older than the Cape town
By Stewart Bishop
Globe Staff / June 3, 2009
As Truro prepares to celebrate its 300th birthday next month, one local man has found an artifact that predates the town itself.
Peter Burgess, a retired psychologist who found a strange-looking coin on his property last spring, recently learned it was more than 300 years old.
"At first I wasn't sure what it was," Burgess said. "It didn't look so much like a coin, but like a brown wafer."
Upon further study, Burgess noticed small markings: a crown, three lions, and some numerals. The coin turned out to be an approximately 313-year-old English silver sixpence, issued only during the reign of King William III, who ruled England from 1689 to 1702, according to researchers.
"It's a pretty significant find," said Truro Historical Society historian and retired physicist Dan Sanders, who is also a friend of Burgess. "It's one of the earliest coins I've ever seen on Cape Cod, and it's right where the town was founded."
Sanders said it's unusual to find an English coin from that period on Cape Cod. "It's rare that an English coin of this kind would be in the Colonies," he said. "Mostly at that time they used Colonial coinage, if any. Most people of that time and place were self-sufficient. It was very much more a bartering society."
Though not worth much money to collectors, the coin holds historical value to Truro and the rest of the Cape, Sanders said.
Burgess spent several months researching the coin online before he contacted Louis Jordan, director of the special collections department at the University of Notre Dame, who identified the coin.
Burgess was putting in a garden on his property in May 2008 when he discovered the coin, buried in the dirt.
He said his property is on the site of the old meetinghouse in Truro, known during Colonial times as "The Meeting-House on the Hill of Storms." It's also a stone's throw from the Old North Cemetery, where people were buried during the 18th century.
Sanders and Burgess speculated the coin might have belonged to John Avery, a Harvard-educated physician, minister, and blacksmith, whose status made him one of the only residents of Truro who would have had access to such coins. Sanders said the coin's value in the 18th century would have represented two days salary for Avery.
For his part, Burgess would like to share the coin with the public. "I want to make it available so that people can see what it was like in that era," Burgess said. "I think it's useful to have something like this you can use to provide context."
Burgess also said the coin holds special meaning for him. "From where I'm standing, it's so much more personal," he said. "What's important to me is that it's connected to me and my land. For me it's a vehicle that takes me back to that time."
Buried in a Truro yard, a 313-year-old find
Silver sixpence is older than the Cape town
By Stewart Bishop
Globe Staff / June 3, 2009
As Truro prepares to celebrate its 300th birthday next month, one local man has found an artifact that predates the town itself.
Peter Burgess, a retired psychologist who found a strange-looking coin on his property last spring, recently learned it was more than 300 years old.
"At first I wasn't sure what it was," Burgess said. "It didn't look so much like a coin, but like a brown wafer."
Upon further study, Burgess noticed small markings: a crown, three lions, and some numerals. The coin turned out to be an approximately 313-year-old English silver sixpence, issued only during the reign of King William III, who ruled England from 1689 to 1702, according to researchers.
"It's a pretty significant find," said Truro Historical Society historian and retired physicist Dan Sanders, who is also a friend of Burgess. "It's one of the earliest coins I've ever seen on Cape Cod, and it's right where the town was founded."
Sanders said it's unusual to find an English coin from that period on Cape Cod. "It's rare that an English coin of this kind would be in the Colonies," he said. "Mostly at that time they used Colonial coinage, if any. Most people of that time and place were self-sufficient. It was very much more a bartering society."
Though not worth much money to collectors, the coin holds historical value to Truro and the rest of the Cape, Sanders said.
Burgess spent several months researching the coin online before he contacted Louis Jordan, director of the special collections department at the University of Notre Dame, who identified the coin.
Burgess was putting in a garden on his property in May 2008 when he discovered the coin, buried in the dirt.
He said his property is on the site of the old meetinghouse in Truro, known during Colonial times as "The Meeting-House on the Hill of Storms." It's also a stone's throw from the Old North Cemetery, where people were buried during the 18th century.
Sanders and Burgess speculated the coin might have belonged to John Avery, a Harvard-educated physician, minister, and blacksmith, whose status made him one of the only residents of Truro who would have had access to such coins. Sanders said the coin's value in the 18th century would have represented two days salary for Avery.
For his part, Burgess would like to share the coin with the public. "I want to make it available so that people can see what it was like in that era," Burgess said. "I think it's useful to have something like this you can use to provide context."
Burgess also said the coin holds special meaning for him. "From where I'm standing, it's so much more personal," he said. "What's important to me is that it's connected to me and my land. For me it's a vehicle that takes me back to that time."
0
Comments
Gary
Gary
FOR SALE Items
<< <i>the coin might have belonged to John Avery, a Harvard-educated physician, minister, and blacksmith, whose status made him one of the only residents of Truro who would have had access to such coins. >>
It's not very often that even speculative provenance can be attributed on a dug coin.
Rumor had it, there was a William & Mary halfcrown found on a site near here, some years ago. It's totally unsubstantiated, though.
What is NOT rumor is the 1697 William III shilling found by a local friend of mine, in one of the parks here.