30
August
2200-year-old gold coin found in Israel
30 August 2010 AFP
A rare gold coin dating back more than two millennia to the year 191 BC has been found at a dig in northern Israel, the antiquities authority said on Wednesday.
"The coin is beautiful and in excellent preservation. It is the heaviest gold coin with the highest contemporary value of any coin ever found in an excavation in Israel," Dr Donald T. Ariel, head of the authority's coin department, said in a statement.
The coin weighs almost one ounce (27.71 grams), whereas most ancient gold coins weighed 4.5 grams, he added.
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