The Maine penny, also referred to as the Goddard coin, is a Norwegian silver penny dating to the reign of Olaf Kyrre (1067–1093 AD). The Maine State Museum describes it as "the only pre-Columbian Norse artifact generally regarded as genuine found within the United States". The American Numismatic Society has stated that "There is no reliable confirmation on the documentation of the Goddard coin, and much circumstantial evidence suggests that someone was deliberately trying to manipulate or obfuscate the situation. The Norse coin from Maine should probably be considered a hoax." An analysis by anthropologist Edmund Snow Carpenter, published by the Rock Foundation, concluded, "not proven".
Read more about Maine Penny: Discovery, Norse Origin
Famous quotes containing the words maine and/or penny:
“Those Maine woods differ essentially from ours. There you are never reminded that the wilderness which you are threading is, after all, some villager’s familiar wood-lot, some widow’s thirds, from which her ancestors have sledded fuel for generations, minutely described in some old deed which is recorded, of which the owner has got a plan, too, and old bound-marks may be found every forty rods, if you will search.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Oh, I realize it’s a penny here and a penny there, but look at me: I’ve worked myself up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.”
—Arthur Sheekman, U.S. screenwriter. Norman McLeod. Groucho Marx as himself, in Monkey Business (film)