Friday, December 18, 2015

Can you help identify this mystery artefact? We're stumped! #nlheritage



Do you have any idea what this is? Earlier this week, a public works employee with the Town of Portugal Cove-St. Philips found this round silver piece while putting in a stop sign. It was turned over to Julie Pomeroy, the town's heritage officer, to identify, but there are no markings.

Thoughts? Theories? Leave a comment below, or email Julie at Julie.Pomeroy@pcsp.ca.



3 comments:

Unknown said...

The hole and groove at the top suggests it may have been suspended as a sort of pendant. I have heard of the tradition of marking sheep before they were released in the spring so they could be identified later in the fall. Sometimes a ten cent piece was used; a segment was cut off and kept by the owner for matching. The other segment was tied to the wool somewhere near the tail. I have not heard of tokens used other than the 10 cent piece. Disputes often arose about sheep ownership.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I really have no idea - but when I was a teen-ager sometimes if a guy liked a girl he'd put a penny on a railroad track and after the train ran it over he'd punch a hole in it and she'd wear it around her neck.

Probably not what it is! But it did remind me. Was that a NL tradition, back when there were trains?

Anonymous said...

I would have to say railroad as well. Placed a good many on the tracks as a child and it sure looks like the same results.