How do you, personally, interpret this find?

[Likely Guy]

I'll reserve my opinion until after a few others have added theirs (or not).

Headline:
17th-century Chinese coin found in Yukon

Story link:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/story/2011/11/01/north-acient-coin-found.html

 

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[jeff of pa]

Cool find, if it was.

Chinese & Russian traders must have come to my County in PA
to trade then Too

My "Guess" It could have been lost during the Gold Rush.
could have been lost in the early 1900's also.

a single Coin dosn't prove anything solid,
as to who dropped it & when.
especially Cache coins.

My opinion their archeologist is working
on getting Finances. When will she find Evidence
the earth is round ?

Of course The chinese were Probably Trading with Russia & the rest of
the world long before the 17th. Century.
Sombody invented the word "Knock-off"

 

[ivan salis]

bought from chinese warlords as "contracted laborers" (basically indentured servants" sold to work for seven years of free labor in exchange for transportation) chinese "coolie" laborers were commonly used as near slave laborers in the early mid to late 1800's in railroad and cannery work in alaska-- many carried old chinese coins from home to "remind" them of home country or for "good luck"

once "released" from their contract some worked on still until they had enough money to make a small grubsteak amount to try gold panning / mining gold panning

 

[Likely Guy]

Jeff, Ivan - thank you very much. You've helped to restore my faith in sanity.

Periodically I've helped restore a nearby ghost town and we've found a couple dozen of these coins. Some older, most newer.

Their value was mostly important to the owner as they were passed from generation on down, as 'a wish of good fortune' from their ancestors. They had an inherent intrinsic value. They're also called 'trade coins' in that they were better than an I.O.U. If you grubstaked a Chinese miner and he paid you with these coins, you knew that the debt was as good as paid because his ancestors would curse his a$$ if he didn't repay the debt and get them back.

As you both said, in effect, is that all this proves is there probably was a Chinese miner who passed through that area.

I've got an old greek coin that's worth about 10 or 12 bucks. If I threw it out on my lawn and this guy found it, would he suggest that 1st Century B.C. Greece had an established trade route to the north west coast of North America?

That, and why would a Russian take in trade a brass/zinc coin from China and take it across the Pacific with the hopes of trading it for something better?

Thank you Jeff and Ivan for giving me this time to vent my spleen.

P.S.: This ancient coin was also found (almost magically - my emphasis) "...inches from the surface."

 

[jeff of pa]

P.S.: This ancient coin was also found (almost magically - my emphasis) "...inches from the surface."

Yes I saw that also, First shovel of dirt.

Makes me think very Lucky,

Using a Detector,

or Inventing history to Justify Expense.

 

[stefen]

If you will note, especially archeologist contributions to such publications commonly referred to as BAR or Biblical Archeology Review...many finds are credited as belonging to historic characters...ie., a skull belonging to (just for conversation only) Mary, Mother of Jesus...when, in fact, it more than likely was the skull of a shepherdess...

Which credit is more likely to give the archy his 15 minutes of fame?

 

[jaysin]

i wouldnt read to much in to this find sounds like someone salted the area

 

[stefen]

i wouldnt read to much in to this find sounds like someone salted the area

To coin a phrase

 

[U.K. Brian]

I've no worries about the coin being found a few inches from the surface as I find coins up to 2500 years old most weeks and they can even be on the surface with modern coins several inches down.

As others have been mentioned an old coin find from most countries would be kept as a lucky token or drilled and placed on a chain and could be transported anywhere in the world so means nothing.

Only if old coins in quantity are found is there a good chance that there may have been visitors or a ship wreck hundreds of years before a particular race was supposed to have arrived in the U.S. a good example of which was the African Islamic hoard of cpper/silver found in 1787 in Massachusetts. This does suggest that there was a Muslim presence in the U.S. 500 years before Columbus.

 

[maipenrai]

Mmmmmmmm, does this mean that China owns the Alaska? Didnt the Russians say they owned it? We must have bought stolen property then. This is really getting confusing!

 

[sniffer]

just because someone found an old coin somewhere does not mean it was dropped when it was minted. it could have been dropped 10 years ago by somebody MDing. LOL

 

[salvage diver]

i call horse hockey on the story. My brother rides on a Mardis Gras float each year and he throws those things out by the handfull

 

[bluehunter1973]

Sailor was in china next stop alaska drops coin. Or threw it because he couldnt spend it here.

 

[maipenrai]

Thats pretty good luck, the first shovel full of dirt, and she finds a coin. I guess the road will have to take another route, costing millions of dollars, just in case, there is another coin somewhere. Sounds like a good way to prevent any construction, just drop a coin, and then find it. Now all the history books will have to be rewritten, along with the story of the proven resting place of the Chinese traders. Im sure the Russians couldnt have dropped the coin, since Russia is no where near China! It doesnt take much to make up new theories on movements of peoples. Nice way to get your name in lights.