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Riddle Of The Rainforest Coin


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Thanks for the article as it is interesting, the Egyptians were sea faring for sure. They controlled  many trade routes at the time and may wanted to start trading there. That would be my guess, but I am sure that others might have a better explanation.

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I found this article about the silk road sea route which may explain how the coin got there.

http://www.historyshistories.com/silk-road-maritime-route.html

The coin may have arrived from the Chinese sailors with other goods such as cinnamon which was in high demand.

Just a guess.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Great story, it’s interesting whenever something ancient like that coin shows up in a much different part of the world than where it came. Out here on the western coastline of the US, archaeologists have found rocks near the coast that appeared to be anchor stones, possibly from Asia. And then there are artifacts from Vikings found in Newfoundland  predating the arrival of Christopher Columbus in North America.

I also have one question about that photo of the guy using gold pans in the article- but perhaps I’ll add it to the prospecting thread instead to not go off topic here….  Thanks for sharing the interesting article!

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..... archaeologists have found rocks near the coast that appeared to be anchor stones, possibly from Asia. ...

This has been debunked.   Those anchor stones, that you speak of, that have been found off the west coast, have been shown to have still been in-use by the Chinese, even up to American period times here (gold rush, when, yes, Chinese came here on ships).  Thus they need not point to anything "ancient".

 

Yet for some strange reason, this story continues to circulate.   As if .... no one can resist a salacious story about how the Chinese were supposedly here 500 or 1000 yrs. before the Europeans, blah blah.   

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Riddle of the rainforest coin.   Ancient Egyptian visitors to Australia or miner's mishap?

                                                                 ....Link to Coin....

 

Ancient coins that show up in the oddest of places, does NOT mean that it was necessarily lost in-that-period.

 

For example :  I know a guy from Monterey, CA, who found an ancient coin, in an oldtown demolition site, which he got ID'd as something like AD 100 (an ancient Roman coin).   At no point did he think "Gee, the Romans were here in AD 100 ! ".  Instead he assumed it was probably a curiosity pocket piece brought back by a returning soldier after WWI or WWII from Europe.

 

Because coin collecting is not a new phenomenon.   There has been ancient coins bought/sold/traded since forever.   For example: When Egyptology became "all the rage" in the 1920s, then it wasn't unusual for street vendors in the holy land to hawk ancient coins to tourists, as souvenirs .  

 

And while it might seem unusual for someone in modern times to be carrying such an item and lose it via casual fumble fingers, yet :  As we know from our hobby :  PEOPLE LOSE THE DURNDEST THINGS !

 

For example:  When I was a kid with my first detector in the mid 1970s, I went up and down the parking strips in my 1950s neighborhood, angling for silver coins.   Imagine my surprise when I got an 1870s foreign silver coin !!  Woohoo !  But never for a moment did I think "Someone was here in the 1870s".  Instead I assumed it was a modern loss.  How did I know ?  Easy :  It was still in the bezel !  Doh !   But what if it had fallen out of the bezel ?

 

I knew a guy who found a seated half on the dry sand of a beach here.   How did he know it was a modern loss ?  Easy :  It was still in the plastic sleeve, from the coin-store with the price tag on it.  Doh !

 

So while it is unusual, it is possible that ancient coins do get lost in modern times, for a variety of reasons.

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This has been debunked.   Those anchor stones, that you speak of, that have been found off the west coast, have been shown to have still been in-use by the Chinese, even up to American period times here (gold rush, when, yes, Chinese came here on ships).  Thus they need not point to anything "ancient".

 

Yet for some strange reason, this story continues to circulate.   As if .... no one can resist a salacious story about how the Chinese were supposedly here 500 or 1000 yrs. before the Europeans, blah blah.   

Hey Tom, I should’ve known better, and my wife is an archaeologist! Don’t tell her what I said!😉

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=anchor+stones+california&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DAdvGNHeXMeMJ

 

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