Here in the southeast, it is not unusual to find pierced coins in
African-American slave contexts--often with dates many years earlier than
the site.  Based on WPA interviews, these coins were used as protection
against witchcraft:  "sometimes a silver dime on a fishin' string to keep
off de witches" (Yetman 1970:115-116).  We found a pierced Spanish 1 reale
piece on a South Carolina slave cabin site and an early 19th century dime on
a possible postbellum tenant farm site.
 
                                                Lucy Wayne