Rare English Coin Discovered at Cupids Cove Plantation

Archaeologists at the Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site have discovered a rare English silver coin during this season’s excavations.

Head archaeologist William Gilbert said that this is likely the oldest English coin to ever be found in Canada, and possibly all of North America.

Consultation with Paul Berry, former curator of the Bank of Canada’s Currency Museum, indicates the coin is a Henry VII “half groat”, or two-penny piece, minted in Canterbury, England sometime between 1493 and 1499.

In 2001, an Elizabethan coin, dated 1560-1561, was unearthed on the same site. At that time, the coin was considered the oldest English coin ever found in Canada.