A small silver coin discovered in Maine, USA, created one of the most intriguing archaeological questions connected to the Viking Age.
Known as the Maine Penny, it is a genuine 11th-century Norwegian coin, discovered at the Goddard archaeological site, a Native American trading settlement.
But there is an important mystery: there is no confirmed Norse settlement in Maine. The only confirmed Norse site in North America is much farther north, at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.
The coin may have reached Maine through Indigenous trade networks, passing from community to community over a considerable distance. It does not prove that Vikings themselves reached Maine.
So how did a Norwegian coin travel so far across North America nearly 1,000 years ago?
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