Wednesday, April 4, 2012

An Unexpected Relic from a different Great War

I finally got back to some digging back home in North Carolina, and made an unexpected but very interesting find.  I was back at the construction site with Jim last week, looking for more bullets from a Civil War camp site which is currently being developed.  Most of the targets we've been recovering there have been of the Civil War period, but the land was originally part of a farm, so we occasionally find more modern items as well.  My take for the day was four more bullets (three 58 caliber minie balls and one Williams cleaner type two), two small rivets, some melted lead, and the base to another Williams cleaner bullet.  I was surprised when I uncovered a small holed coin from the site!  Given the hole, I thought it was likely from the Civil War period, but cleaning it revealed a relic from a different Great War.


One side of the coin shows the Reichsadler, or Imperial Eagle, the heraldic symbol of Germany.  The other side identifies the coin as 10 Pfennig, along with the country of origin, the "Deutsches Reich" or Imperial German Realm.  The date on the coin holds a special significance - minted in 1918, this coin marks the end of World War I and the fall of the German Empire that created it.  This explains the hole in the coin, as it was almost certainly a souvenir brought back from the war.  This is one of those special sort of finds that I really wish could talk.  It would definitely have a story to tell, and it is fascinating to think about the places it has been and the things it might have been witness to.  I have included a picture of a non-dug example of this coin below, so you can see what it would have looked like before it was lost.

1 comment:

  1. Neat find. I found a WWI coat button - with the Great Seal - at DIV XXI. My heart almost stopped when I first pulled it out of the ground!

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