Early European visits to British Columbia?

The Auz coin -- no image of BC's yet

Last year a thousand year old East African coin hoard turning up on an Australian beach was pretty cool news.

Now British Columbia has its own version: an English coin from the 1550s reported to have been found last month by a beachcomber at an undisclosed shoreline on Vancouver Island.

Years ago when I reviewed BC writer Sam Bawlf's Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, I was cool to his arguments that Drake

threaded the whole Inland Passage and the Strait of Georgia like some 16^th century Princess liner,

but thought he made a case that Drake might have seen more of the northwest coast than he is usually credited with.  (More negative scholarly opinion here.) And this find, if confirmed can't hurt his argument.

(Image: Sydney Morning Herald)