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Cyprus

A Surprise from Cyprus: Rare 2,500-Year-Old Coin Discovered on an Ashdod Beach

A rare coin roughly 2,500 years old, minted in ancient Cyprus, has been discovered on a beach in Ashdod. Avi Chaprak, Deputy Director of the Ashdod Beaches Department, ordinarily helps residents and visitors recover jewelry, keys, and other belongings lost in the sand. During one such search, he noticed something else entirely: an ancient coin. Acting under Israel's antiquities law, Chaprak submitted the find to the Israel Antiquities Authority, where the Coin Department established it as an exceptionally rare piece, the first of its kind found in the country.

The coin was minted in the ancient city of Salamis, on Cyprus's eastern coast, around the middle of the fifth century BCE, when the Persian Empire held sway over the island. Weighing about 11 grams, it is a standard denomination known as a "Siglos." "At first glance, it looked to be made of silver, but a closer examination showed it to actually be of metal that was only plated with silver," said Yanniv David Levy, Researcher and Curator in the Antiquities Authority Coin Department, a known practice in Cypriot coinage of the period given the shortage of silver on the island. One face depicts a left-facing recumbent ram; the other shows a ram's head set within a sunken square frame beside a vertical laurel branch.

"Coins of this size and value from the Persian period are rare altogether in the archaeological record," Levy added, noting that silver coins of this size were usually cut into small pieces for use as local trade currency, chiefly at inland sites. A complete coin recovered from the coast is unusual on all accounts. Chaprak received a certificate of appreciation for reporting the find. "I am happy that I was privileged to be part of a discovery of historical value," he said. "For me, it was clear that the coin belonged to our collective heritage, so I immediately delivered it to the Israel Antiquities Authority."

(INN/VFI News)

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