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:
“On a late-winter evening in 1983, while driving through fog along the Maine coast, recollections of old campfires began to drift into the March mist, and I thought of the Abnaki Indians of the Algonquin tribe who dwelt near Bangor a thousand years ago.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“With one hand he put
A penny in the urn of poverty,
And with the other took a shilling out.”
—Robert Pollok (1798–1827)