In the late 1800s southeast of what is now Phoenix, Oregon, Mr. and Mrs. Roberts hired two young boys to shovel out an old, debris-filled chicken coop. During the job, the boys found a seemingly innocuous tin can buried beneath the hen house. Lugging it out, they realized it was extremely heavy. They guessed it… Read more »
Sometime as far back as the Iron Age a person decided to stash a number of coins deep in a cave for safekeeping. Fast-forward to a modern climber who discovers four of these coins and kicks off a full-scale archeological dig at Reynard’s Kitchen Cave in England’s Dovedale Valley. To date, 26 coins have been… Read more »
It’s the late 1840s in central California. No way to describe this time and place in history other than the Wild West. The Gold Rush is in full swing. American settlers are fighting to establish a toehold in the rugged terrain. Many hoped to find a fortune in gold. And a few did, in the… Read more »
Over one thousand years ago near modern-day Cambridge, England, King Ethelbert II of East Anglia, decided to mint coins to commemorate his very successful reign. The only problem was that doing so signaled his independence from the King of Mercia. Offa, the king, didn’t like this one bit. In fact, it’s largely believed that it’s… Read more »
A brooch, a comb and some tweezers don’t seem like they are particularly interesting items. In fact, they can probably be found in many women’s bathrooms today. But archeologists found some of those items that were anything but ordinary on a recent dig. In what was once a Roman villa in Leicester, England, archeologists dug… Read more »
As far back as WWI, the U.S. military used ancient and rare Native American languages as codes over military radio. This was because our enemies abroad were listening. These languages were completely incomprehensible to them, making them the perfect code. The men that used these codes to convey essential information were called code talkers. Though… Read more »
At some point in their lives, most people have worked at a job that they felt didn’t pay them what they were worth. What today’s beleaguered workforce doesn’t have to deal with, however, is getting paid in a currency that is worth next to nothing. For many years, coal miners had to put up with… Read more »
Have you ever noticed coins on a gravestone, and wondered why they were there? When a U.S. service member or loved one leaves a coin on a gravestone it has special significance. Though the meaning of this custom has changed over time, it’s a tradition with a long history. The idea of leaving coins with… Read more »
Imagine firing up your metal detector, waving it back and forth over the earth rhythmically. You hear the long-awaited ping, and begin to dig into the dirt, not knowing if you’ll find a tin can, or something a little more interesting. Now imagine discovering that ping was set off by a treasure from the 7th… Read more »
On May 5th, 1862, an army of Mexican citizens and soldiers defeated a well-armed French troop nearly three times its size. The battle at Puebla was a moral victory for Mexico, but it was not a battle that led to independence. Mexico declared independence from Spain on September 16, 1810. A commemorative coin was issued… Read more »
