Hold off, Geraldo: West Point time capsule held something, after all

Peter D. Kramer, Rockland/Westchester Journal News
Updated ·2 min read
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WEST POINT − Days after what appeared to be a "Geraldo" moment — when the U.S. Military Academy held a high-profile ceremony to unseal a time capsule from 1829, only to reveal what appeared to be dust and silt — the penny has dropped.

Well, more than a penny.

Late Wednesday, West Point revealed six coins and a medal were retrieved from the box: A Liberty dollar coin from 1800, a 50-cent coin from 1828, a 25-cent coin from 1818, a 10-cent coin from 1827, a 5-cent coin from 1795, a 1-cent coin from 1827, and a commemorative medal from 1826 marking the completion of the 19th century's engineering marvel, the just-opened Erie Canal.

Paul Hudson, West Point's archaeologist, displays the artifacts found in the dried silt of a time capsule opened on Aug. 28, 2023. The unsealing ceremony seemed to end in disappointment, but further digging revealed the six coins and a commemorative medal.
Paul Hudson, West Point's archaeologist, displays the artifacts found in the dried silt of a time capsule opened on Aug. 28, 2023. The unsealing ceremony seemed to end in disappointment, but further digging revealed the six coins and a commemorative medal.

The treasure, it turned out, was buried twice: once in the lead box in the base of the West Point monument to Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Koscioszko in 1829; and then in all that silt at the bottom of the box.

What's inside: General Washington, meet general disappointment

When they found the box last spring while disassembling the Kosciuszko monument for repair, everyone got excited. The academy issued press releases, invited media from all over, gathered historians, cadets and generals. This could be a window into a bygone time, when the academy was 27 years old and a Virginian named Robert E. Lee was a cadet.

But when Paul Hudson, West Point's archaeologist, peeled off the medallion atop the lead box and reached inside, all he pulled out was dried mud and ash-like dust. The crowd in Thayer Hall groaned. A livestream audience of more than 6,000 was let down.

A Liberty dollar coin from 1800 was among artifacts found in the dried silt of a time capsule discovered beneath the Thaddeus Kosciuszko monument at West Point. An Aug. 28, 2023, ceremony seemed to end in disappointment, but further digging revealed the coins.
A Liberty dollar coin from 1800 was among artifacts found in the dried silt of a time capsule discovered beneath the Thaddeus Kosciuszko monument at West Point. An Aug. 28, 2023, ceremony seemed to end in disappointment, but further digging revealed the coins.

“The box didn't quite meet expectations,” Hudson said flatly. “There is a layer of silt. That's what we were removing here that settled in the bottom. The bottom had bowed out. It appears to have been from moisture penetration.”

But Hudson wasn’t ready to give up on the contents of the box, which didn’t appear to hold anything of instantly recognizable value.

“We don't want to think that they went to all the trouble to put this box in the monument and not put anything in it,” he said. “We're going to collect all the silt at a later point. We'll screen it through a fine mesh screen to see if we can find any remains in it and determine what, if anything, was in here. Potentially, it was something small and organic that may have come apart over time, but we're just not certain.”

History mystery What's inside a newly discovered West Point time capsule?

Now the coins are recovered, and dusted off, and back in the light of day, after 194 years.

And a couple of days.

Reach Peter D. Kramer at pkramer@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: West Point time capsule wasn't empty: Here's what was inside