11/15/18 Report - Holed Coins, Pockets and Pouches. Cold Front. Stone Ax Found at Mount Vernon.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Holed Coins Collected by Mike F.

Another addition to your ongoing “holed” coins stories. This is not so much to show you some holed coins that I collected (not found with my metal detector), but to add another reason for the holes. I left England when I was 22 to ’see the world'. Some five years later, in the mid 1960s, I arrived in Papua New Guinea. I lived in Port Moresby for about six months and was intrigued by the holed shillings which occasionally showed up in my change. I was told that the reason for the wholes in the middle was so that the New Guinea natives, who were not much into wearing western clothing, could hang them on a cord around their necks and take one off whenever they needed to purchase something. I collected as many as I could, but that was very few until I moved up into the highlands for six months. There were a lot more of these coins still in circulation in the remote areas and I collected many more shillings and even two 6 pence and two 3 pence coins, which I had never seen in Port Moresby. I believe these coins were minted in Australia, which was using the English pound, shillings and pence monetary system. They were all minted between 1936 and 1945 (1935-36 King George V, 1938-45 King George VI). Minting of these coins stopped in 1945 and no new coinage was issued until the 1970s when Papua New Guinea started minting its own coins. I’m presuming the coins in the attached photo are 925 silver, like English coins. The shillings are about the same size as a US quarter.

Keep up the good work. I never miss reading your reports.

Mike in NJ

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Back a few days ago I showed a beach-dug coin from Denmark that had a hole in the middle.  Denmark says the holes in their coins are simply to make them different and therefore more identifiable.

I also once mentioned how holed coins could be sewed into garments for safe keeping during transportation.  That led me to wonder about pockets, and when they came into common use.  Below is what I found in one article.

… This is because the original pockets weren’t like the sewn-in pockets we know today, but rather separate bags detached from clothing. From the 15th until the mid-16th century, men and women carried essential items and currency in a pouch that was typically tied around the waist or hung from a belt. As thieves and “cutpurses” became more of a problem in the 17th century, people began to cut slits in their shirts, skirts, and pants, and tuck their pouches inside their clothing for safekeeping. This practice necessitated making the bags flatter and easier to reach into, so they would be more accessible and not create a significant bulge....

And here is that link.

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/a-mans-pockets/

So by the 17th century purses or pouches were inserted into clothes more like the pockets we have today.

I'm sure some items were still sewed into clothing.  I've read about that being done during WW II also.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/history-of-pockets/

Speaking of bulges, there was one time I was returning to the car after a good hunt.  As I was walking down the steps to the parking lot with a pocket full of coins, a young lady walking up the steps fixed her eyes on the area just below my belt buckle.  I wondered why she was staring.  When I looked down, the coins in my pocket were lined up to look something like two rolls of quarters.  That is all I'll say.  As much as I tried to avoid people on my detecting outings, there were a lot of memorable encounters and funny experiences.

Another thing about pockets - make absolutely sure your pockets have no holes.  I had to find a gold chain twice because one very small hole.  After I dug the gold chain I put it in my shirt pocket before the long walk back to the car.  When I got there I noticed the chain was gone and then noticed the small hole.  I had to walk back a long distance and was lucky to find the chain again right at the water's edge.

And there was the time I was detecting with my wife.  It seemed like she found a real hot spot.  She kept finding more and more coins in the same spot.  Turned out she had a hole in her goodie bag.  That was something I never let her forget.

Years ago I often used a small leather bag with a pull-string .   It was like the bag I used to keep my change when I delivered newspapers as a child.  Same kind of bag that was used to keep my marbles.  I might still have it around somewhere.

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About 6,000 years ago, a precious stone ax that had been skillfully carved and shaped by Native Americans was lost on a ridge overlooking the Potomac River in Virginia. The ax, about seven inches long, had been hewed and smoothed and was narrowed at one end where a wooden handle was attached. Its loss must have been keenly felt.

Six millennia later, on Oct. 12, 2018, Dominic Anderson and Jared Phillips, 17-year-old high school seniors from Ohio, were on an archaeological dig at George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, when a stone that looked like a big potato turned up in their sifting screen. Not sure what it was, they asked the Mount Vernon archaeologists working nearby...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/10/31/students-discover-year-old-stone-ax-mount-vernon/?utm_term=.ce483d4f1e4d

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On the Treasure Coast the tides are pretty flat.  The surf will be small too.  According to MagicSeaWeed, the surf is supposed to be around two or three feet for several days despite a cold front coming through.

Friday the high temperature is supposed to be 69.  I'll be happy to see that.  It has been too hot for this time of year.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net