image credit: Rupert Gerritsen ccOur history books teach us that Australia was discovered in 1606 by a Dutch explorer named Willem Janszoon when he reached the Cape York peninsula in Queensland with his ship Duyfken (picture of a replica of the ship above). Now, 5 copper coins might lead to a discovery that could rewrite Australia's history.
In 1944, Australian soldier Maurie Isenberg was stationed on an island off Australia's north coast. While sitting in the sand with his fishing-rod, he discovered a handful of coins in the sand. In 1979 he decided to send the coins to a museum to get them identified. The coins proved to be 1000 years old.
The discovery was apparently forgotten again until anthropologist McIntosh got the ball rolling a few months ago. The coins raises an important questions: How did 1000-year-old coins end up on a remote beach on an island off the northern coast of Australia?
