Merrimack – Amy and Christopher Cammarota purchased a 17th-century Colonial-era house on Thorton Way two years ago, expecting they would need to maintain and rebuild the crumbling rubble foundation. They did not expect to unearth historical artifacts in the process.

Last year, Amy Cammarota discovered at the base of the house a Daniel Webster coin imprinted with the tall ship Constitution, the couple said in August.

"I kept seeing it on the ground, and one day I kicked it and dug it up with my foot," she said. "It was green and corroded, and we cleaned it with a tooth brush and water."

The token appeared to have been issued sometime between 1832 and 1844, and builders working on the foundation in the mid-19th century possibly, and providently, placed the coin in the foundation to mark the date of their work.

President Andrew Jackson or successor Martin Van Buren would have issued the coin along with many other "hard-times tokens." The national economy had taken a severe downturn in the early 19th century, and Jackson, a populist President who felt the central bank was wielding its power to direct the flow of currency, began to issue hard-times tokens accessible to all.

The coins were widely circulated throughout the antebellum period.

The Cammarotas have found other artifacts, including old farm equipment, horseshoes and an ax. As for the coin, they planned to frame it to mark the history of the house.