A 600-year-old Chinese coin is uncovered in Kenya.

Recently a 600-year-old coin was unearthed on an island off of Kenya.

The location of the discovery seems to prove that China previously traded with African countries prior to European explorers heading off to sea. Anthropologists with the Field Museum and the University of Illinois at Chicago were in charge of the excursion which led to the coin finding. It is currently on display at the Museum.

Comprised of silver and copper, a hole resides in the middle of the monetary piece, probably allowing the owner to keep it on a belt. The curator of the museum states “Chinese currency in East Africa is very, very rare. It speaks to the competition going on between merchants, the kind of competition that is still visible today.”

Last year, archaeologists in Israel uncovered 108 gold coins with an estimated value of half a million dollars. According to Fox News, Israel's Nature and Parks Authority along with Tel Aviv University were studying an ancient fortress that was once used by Crusaders in the mid 1200s, when they stumbled across the coins.

They were buried at that time, presumably, because one of the Crusaders hoped to dig them out later.