Monday, February 22, 2021
RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL According to a statement released by the Israel Antiquities Authority, a soldier on a training exercise in northern Israel discovered a second-century A.D. coin and handed it over to regional authorities. Researcher Donald Tzvi Ariel said the discovery of only 11 such coins has been documented. All of them were found at sites in northern Israel, including Megiddo, Zippori, Tiberias, and Arbel. This coin may have been dropped by someone walking along one of the ancient roads in the region. Antoninus Pius, Roman emperor from A.D. 138 to 161, is shown on the coin’s obverse. The image on the reverse depicts the Syrian moon god MEN, and is accompanied by the year 217, or about A.D. 158 or 159, and the words “of the people of Geva Phillipi,” the city where the coin was minted. Avner Ecker of Bar-Ilan University explained that in civic year 217, cities were granted the right to mint their own coins and establish a municipal council for self
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IDF Soldier Finds Rare 1,800-Year-Old Coin While on Maneuver
Almost anywhere you walk in Israel, the present meets the ancient past
February 9, 2021 | TPS
Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
IDF soldier Ido Gardi was on a training exercise on the slopes of Mount Carmel in northern Israel when he noticed something different on the ground. It was an ancient and rare coin, bearing the head of the Roman emperor Antonius Pius and dating from 158–159 AD.
Very few coins of this kind have been found in Israel.
Dr. Donald Tzvi Ariel, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) Numismatics Department, noted that “this coin joins only 11 such coins from known locations in the National Treasures Department collection. All the coins were found in northern Israel, from Megiddo and Zippori to Tiberias and Arbel.”
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