Mellgram Penny

In the fall of 1956 GUY MELLGREN and Ed Runge, a pair of amateur archaeologists, met a stranger named Goddard, who invited them to explore his shoreline property, on Naskeag Point, near Blue Hill, Maine and on a natural terrace about eight feet above the high tide line, they found stone chips, knives, and fire pits, along with an abundance of other unexpected artifacts.  In the second summer, Mellgren and Runge returned to excavate the “Goddard Site,”and on 18 of August 1957, dug up a coin...   it had a perforation made on it for use as a pendant that has since corroded away.

The find did not garner much attention until 1978, well after Mellgren had died. Upon analysis, the corroded coin was found to not have been English at all, but instead an 11th century Norwegian coin. To be precise, a Norse penny (Made of silver during the time of Olaf Kyrre, King of Norway from 1607 until his passing in 1093) evidence for Viking contact with North America centuries before Columbus.  

It was found three years BEFORE the famous excavations at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, dating to around the year 1000, prove that the Vikings had at least a brief presence in the New World hundreds of years before Columbus. Food remains at L’Anse aux Meadows included butternuts, which are significant because they do not grow naturally north of New Brunswick. Their presence probably indicates the Norse inhabitants traveled farther south to obtain them.