11-year-old girl finds 2,000-year-old coin in Jerusalem

1 de November de 2021

An Israeli girl found a 2,000-year-old silver coin that, some experts say, was minted in the Second Holy Temple in the Old City of Jerusalem as part of great revolt of the Jews against the Romans.

Liel Krutokop, 11, with the 2,000-year-old coin she found. Photo by Yaniv Berman/City of David and Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Tuesday that 11-year-old Liel Krutokop found the coin in an archaeological activity, The Jerusalem Post (The Post) reported.

Weighing 14-gram, one side of the coin features a cup, as well as the inscriptions “Israeli shekel” and “second year,” indicating that the coin was minted during the second year of the Great Revolt against the Romans.

On the other side, an inscription reads “Holy Jerusalem” in ancient Hebrew alongside another word that experts say refers to the headquarters of the High Priest.

The First Jewish-Roman War of 66-73 CE was the first of the three great rebellions of the Jews against the Roman Empire.

The fighting, which took place in Roman-controlled Judea, resulted in the destruction of Jewish cities and the Jewish Temple.

According to The Post, the coin was likely struck by a priest who joined the Jewish rebels against the Romans.

“This is a rare find,” said Robert Kool, head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority

“Since out of many thousands of coins discovered to date in archeological excavations, only about 30 coins are coins made of silver, from the period of the Great Revolt,” he aded.

“At first, I did not know what it was, but it looked different from all the other stones. My father brought it to one of the assistants, and she showed it to an archeologist. He looked at it and said it was a silver coin that needed to be cleaned. I was very excited,” Krutokop said.

Kool suggested that the coin could be one of “the only items we can have today that originated from the temple itself.”

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