Coins Stolen From Loudoun Courthouse

Loudoun has had a working courthouse on the same patch of land in Leesburg since shortly after the county split from Fairfax County in 1757. In that time, the grounds also have been the site of commercial activities and a schoolhouse. The complex changed hands more than 100 times during the Civil War, meaning soldiers from both armies camped there.

"When you look at these artifacts, you see the whole history of the county before you," said Horne, who sits on a county task force for preservation of the grounds.

Horne said that the coins belong to the people of the county and that their theft is a shame.

"They were safe in the ground until you dig them up, and then you dig them up and someone takes them," he said. "They're irreplaceable."

How much they are worth is another question. Although sheriff's officials said the missing coin was a King George III penny, a study done as part of the 1997 archaeological survey identified the coin as a worn half-penny. The archaeologists wrote that the coin featured most of the word "George," along with the king's profile.

Richard Doty, numismatic curator for the Smithsonian Institution, said that neither coin is particularly rare and that the coin in question is in such poor condition that it probably wouldn't fetch much money. He said a thief who tried to sell it probably would be given "the bum's rush, which would kind of serve him right."

American Numismatic Society curator Robert Hoge, who agreed with Doty that the coin probably was of little monetary value, called the theft "tragic" nonetheless.

"Price isn't everything," he said. "People don't realize, when something is gone, it's gone. It represents information that can never be recovered."