460-year-old English shilling found in B.C.

How the discovery of a 460-year-old English shilling in B.C. could help rewrite the early history of Canada

Randy Boswell, Postmedia News | January 12, 2014 | Last Updated: Jan 12 8:35 PM ET
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HandoutThe discovery of a 16th-century coin buried in clay on a Vancouver Island shoreline is rekindling interest in a controversial theory that English explorer Sir Francis Drake made a secret voyage to Canada's Pacific Coast two centuries before Spanish sailors and the legendary British navigator Capt. James Cook carried out their famous 'first' European visits to the future British Columbia in the 18th century.

 
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The discovery of a 16th-century coin buried in clay on a Vancouver Island shoreline is rekindling interest in a controversial theory that English explorer Sir Francis Drake made a secret voyage to Canada’s Pacific Coast in 1579 — two centuries before Spanish sailors and the legendary British navigator Capt. James Cook made their famous “first” European visits to the future British Columbia in the 1770s.

Painting by Marcus Gheeraerts the YoungerSir Francis Drake was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, renowned pirate and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581.

Former B.C. cabinet minister Samuel Bawlf, the leading proponent of the Drake theory and author of a 2003 book on the subject, says the discovery of the coin by a Victoria metal-detector hobbyist adds to the substantial documentary evidence that Drake — well known to have reached California during his 1579 expedition — actually sailed to Vancouver Island and well beyond, but was ordered by Queen Elizabeth I to hide the true extent of his northward travels to protect England’s strategic interests in the New World.

And one of the province’s top archeologists, Royal B.C. Museum curator Grant Keddie, told Postmedia News that he’s made plans to examine the 460-year-old shilling, noting that “this now makes three coins from the 1500s” that have been found along the B.C. coast.

“I am encouraging [relic hunters] to take another look at things they may have found here that are not identified — such as ceramics or glassware — that might date to the same time period as the coin,” added Keddie, who has described Bawlf’s theory as compelling and worth continued investigation by scholars.

The newly discovered coin bears marks indicating it was produced between 1551 and 1553 during the reign of King Edward VI, the son of Henry VIII and half-brother of Elizabeth I. It was found in December by retired security specialist Bruce Campbell, who told Postmedia News he initially had no idea the centuries-old bit of silver could help rewrite the early history of Canada.

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“I made an off-hand comment that everybody I hunt with finds all the goodies and I don’t,” said Mr. Campbell, 59, recalling the Dec. 13 outing with friends. “So I said I’m going where no one else is and walked down and into the high-tide line.”

Over the next hour, in the fading light of what would become Mr. Campbell’s luckiest-ever Friday the 13th, he repeatedly hit paydirt: first a rare 1891 nickel, then an interesting dime from the 1960s, then a large penny from 1900.

Finally, as dusk was setting in, his detector turned up an old, encrusted piece of metal from under eight centimetres of blue clay.

HandoutThis 16th-century coin was discovered buried in clay on a Vancouver Island shoreline.

HandoutThis 16th-century coin was discovered buried in clay on a Vancouver Island shoreline.

“It was all black and crusty and full of gunk from being in the water,” said Campbell, who described how some careful cleaning with soap and water and a soaking in lemon juice revealed clear details of an English shilling with Edward VI’s portrait.

“It turned out to be very nice underneath,” he said, noting that he initially had “no idea” that unearthing a 16th-century coin in B.C. could have implications for the history of the province, the country and whole grand saga of New World discovery.

“I just thought it was a cool coin to find,” said Mr. Campbell. But fellow members of an online forum for metal detector enthusiasts soon informed him of the potential link to Mr. Bawlf’s tantalizing theory about Drake.

“I ended up with the find of a lifetime,” said Mr. Campbell. “It definitely does deserve further research.”

Mr. Bawlf bases his theory on encrypted maps and other British archival documents from the late 1500s that suggest Drake was directed to safeguard his first-hand knowledge of the Pacific Northwest from England’s Spanish enemies.

Other finds hinting at a possible 16th-century English presence along the B.C. coast include a 1571 sixpence dug up in 1930 in the backyard of a Victoria home and another Tudor-era coin unearthed on Quadra Island.

I ended up with the find of a lifetime

“The documentary evidence is compelling in and of itself,” said Mr. Bawlf, who helped construct B.C.’s heritage-protection regime when he was a provincial cabinet minister in the 1970s.

His theory about Drake, he insisted, doesn’t hinge on discovering coins or other objects left behind by the explorer during an officially unrecorded voyage to the future Canada.

“But now we’re getting corroborating evidence. And two of the three coins were found long before I put pen to paper, so this is just further impetus for the documentary proof,” said Mr. Bawlf.