A hiker near Halls Crossing Marina on Lake Powell discovered what appear to be two Spanish coins. The discovery was made last September but the park service didn’t make the find public because they were trying to determine whether they were real or not.
KSL learned about the coins and asked park service archeologist Brian Harmon about them. He confirmed the find and said, "This is very exciting… I’ve never seen anything like this in my career."
After some research, the hiker believes the larger coin matches other coins from the 1660s and the smaller one matches coins from the 1290s. If true, the coin would be from a time two full centuries before Columbus.
Brian Harmon said, “"Spanish coins, Spanish artifacts of this age are extremely rare in the Americas, so this is really exciting to see this."