Two rare ancient coins smuggled out of Israel have been returned by the United States following a joint enforcement operation, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday.
The coins were handed over at a ceremony in New York City on Monday, the result of a collaboration between the IAA’s Theft Prevention Unit, Homeland Security, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit. After being illegally excavated and smuggled to the United States, the coins were listed for auction. IAA intelligence on the pending sales prompted American authorities to open an investigation, leading to the coins’ confiscation and repatriation.
The first coin dates to the reign of Mattisyahu Antigonus, the last Chashmonean king, who ruled Jerusalem from 40 to 37 BCE. One face bears a depiction of the seven-branched menorah from the Bais Hamikdash, marking the earliest known artistic rendering of the menorah and the only Jewish coin to portray it. The reverse shows the shulchan.
Scholars believe Antigonus chose distinctly Jewish symbols to shore up popular support in his struggle against Herod, who held Roman backing. Because of its rarity and its status as the final coin of Chashmonean independence, coins of its type are classified as Items of National Importance and are prohibited from export.
The second coin is a silver tetradrachm (selah) minted in ancient Ascalon, modern-day Ashkelon, dating back more than 2,500 years to the Persian period. Only one other example is known to exist, currently held in the Israel Museum. The coin features the helmeted woman on one side and a wing-spread owl on the other, with the Phoenician letters for “Ascalon” inscribed above it.
“These extraordinary coins represent an important piece of history that is finally coming home,” said Colonel Matthew Bogdanos of the Manhattan DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit at the handover ceremony.
IAA officials used the occasion to highlight the broader problem of antiquities smuggling, calling it a “distressing international phenomenon” that fuels looting and damages cultural heritage worldwide. Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu called the theft of antiquities “an attempt to erase this history of ours and cut us off from our roots,” and vowed continued international cooperation to combat it.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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One Response
I love how governments put a claim on antiques and shipwrecks, and then when people find what has been lost for centuries they “repossess” those items. If someone found and keeps those items they call it “theft” yet they fail to see the irony of their “repossession”.