Holes in coins

[Skelly607]

Been watching the "Todays finds" for a while and I notice a lot of the older coins that are found have a hole in them. Is this for people to make necklaces out of them? Some where safe to keep a coin?

 

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[ivan salis]

in old times "pockets" as we have them now did not exist --- so folks pinned money to their clothing or put them on a string or leather thong to wear about the necks -- thus the coins were holed , so they could be attached or strung .

 

[GL]

Some were holed for sewing into things for decoration too. My grandmother had a bracelet and a purse with large cents and Chinese cash coins sewn into them.
I have also read of coins being used as washers for nails in roofing and barns and such. Copper pierces easily.

 

[AMorgan]

While doing family research, I came across an interesting section about the belief in witchcraft during colonial times. Pages 326 and 327 of "A history of Rowan County, North Carolina : containing sketches of prominent families and distinguished men, with an appendix. Salisbury, N.C.: J.J. Brunner, 1979." mentions that colonists believed that practitioners of witchcraft could cause corn from one horse trough to disappear and be transported into another's horse trough. The intersting fix to breaking the spell is directly quoted as follows:

"But an old fasion shilling with its pillars of Hercules nailed in the horse trough was supposed to break the spell and keep the corn in the trough."

This could explain why some of the coines were holed.

Alan

 

[GL]

My grandmother said her grandfather nailed coins above doors for luck.

 

[Silver Searcher]

They are called touch pieces which date back to the Roman Emporer Vespasian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_piece

SS