Free Republic

Archaeologists found a treasure of Celtic coins in Mosskaovce near Turãianske Teplice. The finding of 40 coins contains the most precious coins that Celts minted in this era, so-called tetradrachms. "The Celts had highly-developed coin system; tetradrachms have four times the higher value of other nominals," explains Karol Pieta, deputy of director from Archaeological Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) in Nitra, as quoted by the SITA newswire. Tetradrachms are about nine to ten grams in weight, as if they have four drachms inside, which were the smallest coins in that time, Pieta explains. It is highly probable that...

A rare cache of silver coins dating to the Hasmonean period, some 2,140 years ago, has been discovered in a salvage excavation in central Israel. The 16 coins, shekels and half-shekels (tetradrachms and didrachms), date from around 126 BCE. They had been minted farther north, in the city of Tyre, and bear the images of the king, Antiochus VII and his brother Demetrius Israeli, stated Avraham Tendler, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority... Closer analysis of the coins showed that the cache contains one or two coins from every year between 135 to 126 BCE... Aside...