willieboyd2 Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 Israeli archaeologists find 7th century Byzantine gold coins Archaeologists found a hoard of gold coins from the 7th century in Jerusalem on Sunday. The 1,400-year-old coins were found in the Giv'ati car park in the City of David in the walls around Jerusalem National Park, a site that has yielded other finds, including a well-preserved gold earring with pearls and precious stones. They were in a collapsed building that dates back to the 7th century, the end of the Byzantine period. The coins bear a likeness of Heraclius, who was the Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. CNN News article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/22/...oins/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TreasureGirl Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 Wwooooowwwww... Unfortunately those pics make them look like those bad plastic fakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 I sure wish they were mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustin43160 Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 i knew i lost those somewere!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 Looks like they are all Heraclius...thing I hate about these stories is they NEVER have real good close ups of the coins...I want to see a nice close-up of at least one coin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted December 22, 2008 Report Share Posted December 22, 2008 Here is a video that shows the coins a little closer...although the woman is obviously not a numismatist handling those precious gold coins the way she does. http://in.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=9...l=lifestyleMolt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleBobo Posted December 23, 2008 Report Share Posted December 23, 2008 I could never work on one of those digs... "Oh wow! I have no idea how that coin fell into my pocket. One in a million shot, eh?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
28Plain Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 Here is a video that shows the coins a little closer...although the woman is obviously not a numismatist handling those precious gold coins the way she does. What many may not realize is that gold coins like this are oftentimes simply melted. When gold coins are found in jurisdictions with stringent laws governing the purported claim of state ownership of archaeological finds, the finders will simply melt the coins without reporting the finds. That's an illustration of how laws passed with the stated purpose of preserving historical artifacts can have the opposite effect. In absence of such laws, the finders could become wealthy by offering their finds to collectors, who are the true conservators of historical coins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabbs Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 These excavations are conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, not by somebody who explores the ground with a detector and then melts the coins or sells them to some collector. So it seems that in this case both the finds and the context are preserved. Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted December 24, 2008 Report Share Posted December 24, 2008 I wish it was found by the detectors so that they would go to market, as it is they might end up in a box in the basement of a museum. I was lucky to have been taken on a tour of the museum here and it seems when it comes to coins, they put a few out on display but the vast majority of them are cataloged then filed away never to see the light of day again...or maybe just here and there. It would be much better if they studied them, cataloged them, kept some and sold the rest to, like said above, the true conservators of coins, we the collectors who would treat them with tender care and show them. I SHOW my coins to all...they deserve to be. I am torn between recognizing the need to catalog these finds, and wanting the coins for my collection. Knowing that the lions share of coins found by archeologists will never reach the markets as they would rather them sit in a basement somewhere then be released to the public, and knowing that many are against collecting such things and try to make it harder and harder to do so...then I must side with the guy who is going to sell them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tabbs Posted December 25, 2008 Report Share Posted December 25, 2008 I was lucky to have been taken on a tour of the museum here and it seems when it comes to coins, they put a few out on display but the vast majority of them are cataloged then filed away never to see the light of day again...or maybe just here and there. And some collectors will (for good reasons) have their coins in safes, and some of those pieces will hardly ever see -- above. Agreed, unfortunately many museums will display only parts of their collections, but that even applies to many unique works of art - think of the Louvre or Prado for example. I do realize that having to give away much or all of, say, a detector find may well be an incentive to simply keep (or maybe even melt) such pieces. But in the case that the article is about, there is no such risk, even if the actual finder is an "amateur" helper. Here is a fairly detailed image of the Jerusalem find by the way: http://www.n-tv.de/img/1075367_src_path.mJ5A.jpg Christian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drusus Posted December 26, 2008 Report Share Posted December 26, 2008 And some collectors will (for good reasons) have their coins in safes, and some of those pieces will hardly ever see -- above. I keep mine in a safe but the end result is online for all to see...but I understand what you mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.