A group of youths in Israel made the find of a life time during an excavation near the city of Yavne when they unearthed 425 gold coins that were buried in the ground in a glass jar.
The coins are believed to date back to the Abbasid period, around 1,100 years ago. Israel Antiquities Authorities (IAA) speculate that someone had placed the coins into a jar before burring it, with the intention of retrieving their loot at a later date, which obviously never happened.
Gold coins found by Israeli youths
‘I dug in the ground and when I excavated the soil, saw what looked like very thin leaves,’ said Oz Cohen, one of the youths, in an IAA statement, ‘When I looked again I saw these were gold coins. It was really exciting to find such a special and ancient treasure.’
Aside from a few bits of dirt and dust, the coins were in extremely good condition when they were discovered. This is because they were made of pure gold, meaning they didn’t oxidize when exposed to air or other elements.
‘Finding gold coins, certainly in such a considerable quantity, is extremely rare. We almost never find them in archeological excavations, given that gold has always been extremely valuable, melted down and reused from generation to generation,’ said lead directors of the IAA excavation, Liat Nadav-Ziv, according to Live Science.
The 425 gold coins was a considerable amount of money. In terms of modern day valuation, based on the current price of gold per gram, it is valued at around R885,291 or $52,600 according to Live Science.
However, Robert Kool, a coin expert at the IAA said in a statement, ‘with such a sum, a person could buy a luxurious house in one of the best neighborhoods in Fustat, the enormous wealthy capital of Egypt in those days.’
Take a look at the amazing discovery below:
Image credit: Facebook/ Israel Antiquities Authorities
