During the last 1,000 years or so, one small item has traveled through time and space, having been curiously inspected, lost, then found again.
It isn't science fiction. It's a coin. A tiny coin that has, for ages, belonged somewhere else.
Today it is called the Maine Penny and it began its life around 1065 AD in Norway during the reign of Olaf III. By the 12th century, the penny was probably on a Viking ship that sailed about 2600 miles to the northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada.
There it was lost, or traded. Its value to the local population would not be monetary. But it was a curious thing. A circle on one side with a cross. On the other side, a depiction of a man. Maybe it would make a good pendant?
Someone thought it would and so they put a puncture in it.
Then, maybe 200 years later, someone wore the coin on their trip to a trading center in Brooklin, Maine, more than 1,000 miles away from the tip of Newfoundland.
And there it was lost. Maybe the puncture cracked and it dropped unobserved off a Native American neck. Or maybe a Viking lost it in a gambling game. But, in any case, it landed in the dirt and there it stayed until 1957 when an amateur archaeologist found it, thought it a curious thing.
Since then the Maine Penny has been the topic of conversation among scientists who wonder if a Viking carried it down the coast to Maine or a Native American? Some wonder if a hoaxster placed it at the site of an old trading post. According to Live Science, the current bet is on a Native American, but then again, the coin is a curious thing, in a curious place, and it keeps the secrets of its long voyage.
