THE FARLEY COINS

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V27 2024 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 27, Number 23, June 9, 2024, Article 14

Here's the second of Pete Smith's three articles on "Epigraphic Explorer" Gloria Farley. This one focuses on the "coins" themselves. -Editor

In her 1993 book, In Plain Sight: Old World Records in Ancient America, Gloria Farley wrote about seven similar coins believed to be evidence of ancient visits to America before Columbus. They are named for the states where they were found.

Jessie Ray Kelley found the coin with a metal detector in 1973 in a field near Cauthron, Arkansas, about 19 miles east of Heavenor, Oklahoma. It was sent to Boston for examination by Dr. Norman Totten, He wrote: The coin is bronze, imperfectly round, measuring 29.5 by 25.0 millimeters in diameter, and weighing 7.63 grams. It has suffered from corrosion. There is no question of its antiquity or its authenticity. The patina on the coin and in the hole has several colors: green, oxblood, yellow and tan. Indications are that it has been buried for centuries.

The coin was found by a small boy in Alabama in 1957. It appears to match the style of the Arkansas coin. It is not holed and the only one of the seven that is not a jewelry piece.

Eddie Thornton reported finding a coin with a metal detector in 1976 buried six inches deep. It has a hole at the top. It matches the style of the Arkansas coin.

Mini Frank wrote to Farley about a coin she had worn as a pendant since she was five. This piece was about the size of a quarter and had a palm tree with no roots. She had been given the pendant by a gypsy woman. This is smaller than the previous pieces and a jewelry piece rather than a ground find.

Frederick J. Gastonguay of Waterbury, Connecticut, sent a photo to Dr. Totten. He had carried it in his pocket for twenty years after finding it in a field near Waterbury. This matched the style of the Arkansas coin.

This coin was reported in 1981 but had been found about 1926. It was found by Delsa Knapp when she was about five years old. She found it at the bottom of a hole her brothers had dug in a cave on a tributary of the North Platte River. There is a hole at the top. Dr. Totten confirmed it was authentic.

This coin was found in Columbus, Georgia, on February 1, 1986, by John Carroll. It was found across the Chattahoochee River from the Alabama coin. It was found with a metal detector about 13 inches below the surface. The coin is holed for suspension and the palm tree has five roots.

Other Farley coins were reported after publication of the original list of seven. There has been discussion of them among metal detecting hobbyists but not among numismatists.

Dr. Mark McMenamin wrote Phoenicians, Fakes and Barry Fell, published in 2000. An abstract of the book stated, In this book, Mark McMenamin demonstrates that putative Carthaginian coins found scattered across the United States (the Farley Coins) do not date back to antiquity but are in fact provocative (i.e., uprooted palm tree devices) forgeries, possibly produced and scattered to confound researchers with archaeological ‘fake news.'

In 2009 Mark McMenamin reported that Eleven specimens are known, from five different die varieties. Presumably, this total includes the specimens on the Farley list plus additional specimens located by McMenamin, including:

McMenamin inspected this coin in 2000. McMenamin described it as from the same or very similar dies that still retained mint luster under a lacquer coating.

This coin was reported in 2009 to have been found by Dale Brennan many years earlier while he was metal detecting as a child. Brennan stated it was 29mm and 10 grams.

This specimen was posted by a Treasurenet member as having been included in an Ask Mark Parker column in Western & Eastern Treasures magazine. Stated to have been found on a storm-swept beach.

Cartage reported this specimen in 2012 as having been found at a late-1800s site. The finder indicated that he sent Mark McMenamin the details of the find, and this coin is assumed to be included in McMenamin's total.

In 2014, Tenderfoot reported that he found this specimen detecting in a construction area in MA, 2 inches deep in clay.

This coin was reported to have been bought at auction for $50 in 2013 at a Goodwill in an unknown location. The palm tree has no roots.

This coin really does not qualify as a Farley Coin. It is obviously a more modern replica on round stock and was not found in the ground. It is unlikely that the ancient Phoenicians dropped their coin in a Goodwill collection box.