Posted on 11/10/2017 7:32:08 AM PST by SJackson
In 2015, divers discovered a hoard of more than 2,000 gold coins on the ocean floor off the coast of Caesarea – the largest stash ever found in the region.
On an overcast morning in February 2015, Zvika Fayer was scuba diving off the ancient Israeli port town of Caesarea when he saw a glimmer on the sand.
He’d gone diving in the area dozens of times before, and loved it for the teeming fish and scattered remains of shipwreck cargo and pottery that he sometimes glimpsed on the ocean floor. Many of Israel's underwater archaeological zones are open to divers, and Caesarea was one of Fayer’s favourite spots.
A violent storm the previous night had battered Israel’s west coast, stirring up the ocean floor and changing the underwater topography. As Fayer dove deeper to investigate the shimmering object he’d seen, he was aware of another storm on the way. As an experienced diver, he’d felt confident going out that morning. But now the winter sky was beginning to darken, the breeze changing.
As he got closer, Fayer reasoned that the gleam must have been a discarded sweet wrapper, perhaps the chocolate coins that look like pirate doubloons. But as he swept the sand away and picked the item up, he saw that he was wrong. This wasn’t a piece of foil; it was a real gold coin with Arabic script on both sides.
“I was astonished when I saw that both sides of the metal were gold,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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That's funny. Before I read that, that was my first impression, Chanukah gelt.
I hope they gave the man a finders fee as a reward for his honesty.
Cool, cool, cool!
Used to love receiving them for 8 crazy days of Chanukah.
Oy! lots of Gelt......
There was no reference to it. I certainly would have operated far differently than he did. I am assuming he has just turned over a many million dollar treasure to the government?
many millions just for the weight of the gold... the fact of them being ancient coins.. makes them FAR more valuable.
he will get nothing, mark my words.
A gift from God.
Probably dropped overboard a boat by William Devane....
A gift from Hanukkah Harry!
His initial thoughts are interesting and amusing because this find was in Israel, so it turned out that a pile of Chanukah gelt became real gold coins.
The alchemy of chocolate. Who knew? So what’s not to love! The golden ticket, heh.
As an OLD metal detector guy (think White’s BF “Ghost Towner”), I found this an interesting and enjoyable article. Thanks for posting it.
Such a deal!
I’ll bet that he took care of that sort of stuff before he called the government.
There were five divers, not just the one mentioned. They got government awards and lots of honors from the Druze community. Haven’t heard of cash rewards.
Oh well, I hope he is satisfied with having their ‘gratitude’ and ‘warm wishes’. Me...I’d be researching means to get rid of them a little at a time...
Thanks SJackson.
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