Greek statue of a veiled dancer

3rd - 2nd century BCE

Vikings in 11th century Maine? The Maine Penny

In 1957 a group of amateur archeologists excavated a long abandoned Native American site (Goddard Site) near Brooklyn Maine. During the excavation they uncovered around 30,000 artifacts including pieces of pottery, bone, stone, and wooden tools. Among the finds was a silver coin which was discovered by a man named Guy Mellgren. After analysis by a series of experts it was determined that the coin was minted in Norway during the reign of King Olaf Kyrre, who reigned between 1067 and 1093 AD. This of course raises a huge question; how did it get to Brooklyn, Maine? The coin itself is undisputed and regarded as authentic. The only question is how did it arrive from Norway to North America. There are two possibilities.

First, the coin traveled across the Atlantic ocean, carried by intrepid Vikings seeking new lands or lucrative trade. This is certainly not implossible as it's been proven that Viking peoples had colonized Greenland, had at least one outpost in New Foundland, Canada (L'Anse aux Meadows), and most likely Viking explorers, merchants, and adventurers probably explored around Canada and the east coast of the United States. So the coin could have either been traded directly with Native Americans in Maine, or traded with other tribes, then traded amongst various tribes until it made it's way to Maine. Either could be plausible as the site had artifacts that originate from all over North America, including items from the Dorset culture who lived in the Arctic zones of Northern Canada. The topic of Pre-Columbian Native American trade in North America is a fascinating topic on it's own but alas this is a tumblr post so I will keep things brief by stating that goods moved across North America between various peoples with regularity.

The second possibility is that we are all being bamboozled. Guy Mellgren was a coin collector and an auctioneer of antiquities. So it would not have been difficult to obtain the coin, at which point he could have claimed to have "discovered it" at the Goddard Site. That or someone else planted it for him to discover. Faking Viking artifacts in America is a long American tradition dating back to the 1800's and still occurs to this day. See the Kensington Stone for one of the most egregious examples. Could it be that the Maine Penny is likewise a hoax?