Posted on 02/17/2015 4:08:49 PM PST by SJackson
A group of divers in Israel has stumbled upon the largest hoard of gold coins ever discovered in the country. The divers reported the find to the Israel Antiquities Authority, and nearly 2,000 coins dating back to the Fatimid period, or the eleventh century, were salvaged by the authority’s Marine Archaeology Unit. The find was unearthed from the seabed of the ancient harbor in Caesarea National Park, according to a press release from the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“The discovery of such a large hoard of coins that had such tremendous economic power in antiquity raises several possibilities regarding its presence on the seabed,” said Kobi Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in the release. “There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected.”
Sharvit suggested that the treasure trove of coins might have been intended to pay the members of the Fatimid military garrison stationed at Caesarea, Israel. There are also other theories as the origins of the coins. Sharvit said that the coins could have belonged to a sunken merchant ship.
“The coins are in excellent state of preservation, and despite the fact they were at the bottom of the sea for about a thousand years, they did not require any cleaning or conservation intervention,” said Robert Cole, an expert numismaticist – someone who studies currency – with the antiquities authority.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
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Egypt will want them back
Oh great... now the Palestinians will claim that is their gold....
ping
Beautiful.
"I'm here to report a find of about 10 or 12 gold coins from the Fatimid period."
I will never understand why people insist on going to the press when they find a large amount of gold. I’d split it with the other divers, and keep my mouth shut.
The Palis will claim it is theirs.
1,000 years under sea and required no cleaning. Gold is amazing.
When they find such lost treasures, I would like for them to tell us what amount of money the find represented in it’s day.
bahog, btt!
Perhaps this is linked to the First Crusade.
There, I used the word.
Fantastic find. Hard to believe we are looking at coins that have been in salt water for 900 years.
HAHAHAHA!!! Yep! :-)
SS&S
ping
?
“The coins are in excellent state of preservation, and despite the fact they were at the bottom of the sea for about a thousand years, they did not require any cleaning or conservation intervention,”
That’s gold for ya:
“That’s the beauty of gold. It never tarnishes. Lasts forever, too. You can twist it, pound it, even piss on it but it’s always the same gold. It was here long before we were and it’ll be here a long time after we’re gone. I bet you a lot of men have died for the gold that’s just in this one piece.”
In 1986 I bought an expensive White’s metal detector. I had dreams of all the treasure I would find.
I found a fair number of coins, nearly all of them recent and mostly pennies. About the only other thing was a fairly good pocket knife which was not too badly rusted.
I would probably have been willing to kill the guy who invented those old pull tabs for drink cans.
“Now I don’t know, but I been told it’s hard to run with the weight of gold,
Other hand I have heard it said, it’s just as hard with the weight of lead.”
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