Identifier: historyofcastine00whee (find matches)
Title: History of Castine, Penobscot, and Brooksville, Maine; including the ancient settlement of Pentagöet;
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Wheeler, George Augustus, 1837-
Subjects: Castine (Me.) -- History Penobscot (Me.) -- History Brooksville (Me.) -- History Maine -- History Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 Acadia Maine -- History Revolution, 1775-1783
Publisher: Bangor, Burr & Robinson
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ing. On searching then, another crown was foundon top of a large rock, covered with moss, and by the sideof this rock the bulk of the money was found. In April,1841, the writer, in company with some friends, visited thespot. It had been quite thoroughly dug over, but severalFrench half-crowns were found by our party, without muchsearching, several feet from the rock, which on its lowerside, shelved downwards towards the path. On going tothe house, we examined all that had not been disposed of,and each of us purchased a number of them. The writerselected, as nearly as he could, a specimen of each, nine-teen in number. There must have been in all nearly, ifnot quite, two thousand pieces, but a large proportion ofthem were only small fractions of crowns and dollars.The French money largely predominated; next, the old *These coins are now in possession of Doctor Joseph L. Stevens, but weare glad to learn that it is his intention to present them, eventually, to theMaine Historical Society.
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BROOKSVILLB AND PENOBSCOT. 195 Spanish cob dollars*. These last were irregular inshape, and much worn, yet of full weight, as comparedwith present standards. The dates on these were mostlyillegible, but the pillars, emblems of Spanish sovereignty,were quite evident. There were quite a number of Bel-gic and Portuguese coins. The most interesting of allwere the Massachusetts pine-tree shillings and sixpences,all of date 1652, and in number about twenty-five orthirty. I saw but tivo English coins, shillings—wornnearly smooth. One, noAV in my possession, is of thereign of Carolus I. or II., and the other, owned by a ladyin town, is of the reign of Jacobus I. As the lattermonarch died in 1625, it must have been coined prior tothat date, and is, probably, the oldest of the whole collec-tion. My theory was, at the time, that they were leftaccidentally by the Baron de St. Castin, when drivenfrom here by the English, under Colonel Church, verynear to the close of the seventeenth century. The

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