Discovery of a Metallic Coin in Salt Lake Valley

In February 1848, Brother Chase was digging a mill-race south of Salt Lake City near current-day Liberty Park. At a depth of over ten feet, he discovered a small copper coin covered with undecipherable hieroglyphics. This discovery was presented as evidence that the region was inhabited by a civilized race prior to the pioneers, supporting the historical claims of the Book of Mormon.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 59, No. 30 (29 July 1897), p. 473):

In February, 1848, the year after the arrival of the pioneers, Brother Chase was digging a mill-race in the undisturbed virgin soil a little south of Salt Lake City in the neighbourhood of what is now Liberty Park. When he had reached somewhat more than ten feet below the surface he discovered a copper coin not quite as large as a United States dime, covered on both sides with strange hieroglyphics. This coin has been in the possession of Brother Chase's family from the time it was found until the present. It is now in the hands of Mr. Isaac Chase, a grandson of the discoverer, who resides in Salt Lake City. The fact of its discovery, however, has a value to Latter-day Saints which other coins found in this region have not, for it bears on its surface testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon, and consequently of the divinity of the great work of human salvation in which the Saints are engaged.