Cristian D’Archi
On May 19 of our excavation of OA-12, I found a wheat penny while sifting one of the buckets from our extension unit. I was super interested in the penny and was hoping that it wasn’t a modern penny. Upon further investigation I found that the penny was from 1944 and unlike what I had previously thought it was an American penny.
When I had first found the penny, I had assumed it was a Canadian penny because it was found on a Canadian site, I was quite shocked when I discovered it was actually an American penny. When Kate inspected the penny, she noted how it was a wheat penny and how this is now the third wheat penny found on BcGn-15 as the Fox squad at OA-11 had found two wheat pennies before this one.
What is a wheat penny you may ask? A wheat penny is a penny minted in the years 1909 to 1958 and is distinctive for their use of two wheat stalks on the reverse end of the penny instead of the Lincoln memorial, which is the common minting on modern pennies.
Interestingly, according to coincollecting.com, there is an error with some of the wheat pennies from the year 1944. The error involves the use of steel in 1943 pennies as a way of saving copper during World War 2 but these steel 1943 pennies were then replaced with normal copper pennies beginning in 1944, but there was an error with some 1944 pennies being still produced using steel and because the penny I found was a 1944 penny it leaves the possibility that this could have been an error wheat penny but I cannot confirm this as it is now in artifact processing and I haven’t seen it since May 19th when I put it in the artifact bag. Maybe one day I will see the penny again and can check on this fact.
Moving on, so what is the importance of this wheat penny and the other wheat pennies being found on our site you might ask? Well, the importance is it indicates that American currency was present in the area due to some reason, such as possible American visitors, trade, or the site resident could have even worked in America which is how the possession of American currency on site occurred. Either of these ways the penny serves as an indicator of American presence on a Canadian historical site.
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