When In Rome: Rare Roman Coin Found in Israel

Recently, National Public Radio did a piece on an ancient and extremely rare gold coin that was found in Israel. Laurie Rimon spotted this exciting artifact while hiking with a few of her friends, and the last thing she expected was for it to be such a momentous find.

The video on NPR’s website shows Laurie explaining where she was hiking and what exactly caught her eye that led to this discovery. Laurie’s friends were convinced it was worth copious amounts of money, but Laurie had simply assumed it was a toy or something of the sort.

It is by no means a toy, though. In fact, this coin is said to be so unusual that there is only one other one with the same symbols on it in the entire world.

An expert with the Israel Antiquities Authority believes it was created by Roman Emperor Trajan in the year 107. Trajan’s coins are very rare, so to have found one of them is a huge step toward learning more about the Roman army presence in the Galileo area at that time.

Gold coins, such as this one, were worth an incredible amount of money in the early time periods. A quote from NPR’s article really helps form an idea of how valuable they really were, “…They were worth so much — one gold coin would cover a month of a soldier’s salary, according to Ariel — that they were difficult to actually use.” That’s quite an impressive coin!

The fact that such a minuscule item can lead to such big discoveries is truly amazing. Hopefully, this coin will lead to more discoveries and more understanding of the world around us. Perhaps we should all take a break from our busy lives and take a hike; who knows! We may find something truly amazing. It’s time to dream big and head out and see what there is to discover. In the meantime, though, this rare gold coin from Israel will teach us a lot, and that is a beautiful thing!

Posted on April 4, 2016 by Abdullah Beydoun