2000-Year-Old Roman Gold Coin Found In Northern Israel

MessageToEagle.com – An Israeli hiker, Laurie Rimon has discovered a Roman gold coin during her trip with friends in the eastern Galilee region of Israel.

She informed officials at the Israel Antiquities Authority but “it was not easy parting with the coin,” Rimon commented. “After all, it is not every day one discovers such an amazing object, but I hope I will see it displayed in a museum in the near future.”

Minted by the Emperor Trajan in Rome in 107 CE, the coin is extremely rare on a global level. It is the identical twin brother” of an ancient gold coin in the British Museum – the second such coin of its kind now known to exist.

“The coin may reflect the presence of the Roman army in the region some 2,000 years ago – possibly in the context of activity against Bar Kokhba supporters in the Galilee – but it is very difficult to determine that on the basis of a single coin,” Dr. Donald T. Ariel, head curator of the coin department at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement.

“Historical sources describing the period note that some Roman soldiers were paid a high salary of three gold coins, the equivalent of 75 silver coins, each payday. Because of their high monetary value soldiers were unable to purchase goods in the market with gold coins, as the merchants could not provide change for them”.

The authority said that the relic bears the image of Emperor Augustus, the first Emperor of the Roman Empire and was part of a series of nostalgic coins that Emperor Trajan minted and dedicated to the Roman emperors that ruled before him.

“On the reverse [of the coin]we have the symbols of the Roman legions next to the name of the ruler Trajan, and on the obverse—instead of an image of the emperor Trajan, as was usually the case, there is the portrait of the emperor ‘Augustus Deified.’ This coin is part of a series of coins minted by Trajan as a tribute to the emperors that preceded him,” Danny Syon, senior numismatist at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

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