Unveiling The Mystery Behind Ancient Spanish Coins

Two Spanish coins that pre-date Christopher Columbus’ arrival in America were discovered in a Utah national park, leading researchers and history buffs to wonder how they got there. One coin dates from 1660, and the other was minted in the 1200s in Madrid. Both were discovered at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah.

“Their presence in the desert remains unexplained and no information has been released about whether they were found with other artifacts,” The Daily Mail reports. “Spanish explorers arrived in Mexico in the 1500s and began exploring north, although there is no record of them being in America at the time the coins were made.”

A hiker discovered the coins and handed them over to Glen Harmon, an archaeologist with the National Park Service. Now archaeologists are developing theories about how the coins got to the area.

“Archaeologists are working on four main theories. They may have been left by early Spanish settlers or explorers, traded with native American tribes possibly in Mexico and then lost in the canyon, or someone brought a really old coin to the continent,” The Daily Mail reports. “However Dr. Rory Naismith, lecturer in Medieval British History at King’s College London, speculated that the coins may have been dropped by a modern collector.”

Naismith says it would be unusual for a Spanish explorer to have been carrying coins from two distinct time periods, bolstering the theory that a visitor who collects coins merely dropped them.