Collecting Jamestown. Part 19. Riga Schilling found in Cellar

I would have never known about this sliver of a coin had I not been chasing after pieces dug at Jamestown. It is not a rare one and is widely available.

In 1997 the southwest corner of an earthfast building was discovered. It was located outside the east palisade of the 1608 fort extension. The discovery was quite a surprise. No one was expecting to find a mud and stud building along the outside of the fort.

The building was named "The Factory" since the archeological evidence revealed that it served as both a storehouse and a manufactory. Its location also facilitated trade with the Natives without entrance into the fort. The building was measured at 72 x 18 feet with an L-shaped cellar at the north end.

The cellar was excavated in 1998 and 1999. Many coins and over 100 jettons were found!

This sliver of a coin is part of the Jamestown collection.
One just like this was found in a sealed context in the cellar
of The Factory that was covered over in about 1610.

One of the coins was a thin schilling of billon that came from the City of Riga. The piece was dated 1577. Riga was located in Livonia. The city was founded in about 1158 and joined the Hanseatic League in 1282. Hence, it is a piece that was readily available to English mariners involved in North Sea trade routes.

But here is where the story gets more interesting.

This Livonian coin was found in a small hole at the floor level of the cellar in The Factory. The cellar was reached by several steps cut into the orange clay. The steps led to a small landing placed just opposite a brick hearth. A border ware saucer candlestick was also found next to the coin.

And now the question: Was the Riga schilling lost or placed?

Apotropaic pieces were not unusual in the early seventeenth century. For example, an English penny was found at the Flowerdew Plantation in a cellar thought to be a dairy. Another silver piece was placed(?) at the bottom of a posthole in a storage cellar near St. Mary's City. These are odd places to lose a coin, but so odd when you consider the need to protect foodstuffs.

And there is more intrigue at The Factory. Near the Riga schilling, at the foot of the stairs, a broken case bottle was found. It was filled with quartz pebbles. Or was it? The pebbles were scattered beneath the bottle. Another odd find. So odd that William Kelso speculated that the bottle was placed there to protect against witches.

I examined the bottle and pebbles last year. They appear to be citrine stones. Are they magical stones?

And the coin? Is it part of this ensemble? Was it placed there for apotropaic purposes?