Cnn: Rare 2,200-Year-Old Gold Coin Found In Israel

What a find! It was 6x larger than most coins found from that era, almost an ounce of gold. I wonder what something like that would auction off for?

Very Nice Guess I wont find that roll hunting

These coins are relatively common, for large ancient gold coins, that is. The denomination is also known as an "octadrachm"; they were issued for a period of over 150 years with much the same design. See this Wildwinds page for several different varieties of this coin, as well as prices realised for them at recent auctions. $10000 seems to be the current going rate.

The article is in error about the date on this particular coin; the little KI below the cornucopiae indicate that this one was struck in the city of Kition on Ptolemaic-controlled Cyprus. "LID" in the left field is the date, the 14th year of the reign of Ptolemy VI, or 167/166 BC. Listed in my 1998 edition Sear as number 7888 with a CV of £3500.

As for it being "only the second gold Ptolemaic coin ever found in Israel", I seriously doubt it. Dozens of these coins have probably been found there. What they really mean is that it's the first of its kind to be found by a proper archaeological dig, rather than accidentally or by looters.

UofM represent!