Dozens of rare coins dating to about 2,000 years ago were seized from a Palestinian doctor attempting to smuggle them through the Hizma checkpoint between the West Bank and Jerusalem on the first Friday of Ramadan.
Border Police officers discovered a box containing the coins during inspections of the doctor’s vehicle, and archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) were called to the scene to verify that they were indeed ancient.
The individual was detained on suspicion of smuggling antiquities. He was transferred to the Shafat Police Station in the Neve Yaakov neighborhood of Jerusalem for further questioning.
Several of the coins, bearing ancient Hebrew inscriptions, are believed to date to the Second Temple period and the revolts against Rome.
The coins, believed to have been looted from a Jewish archaeological site from that period, include silver shekels from the second and third years of the Great Jewish Revolt and bear the ancient Hebrew inscriptions “Shekel of Israel” and “Jerusalem, the Holy.”
In addition, bronze coins from the fourth year of the revolt were found, bearing an image of the Four Species used during the holiday of Sukkot.
Coins from the Bar Kochba rebellion were also found among the seized coins, bearing the name of the revolt’s leader, “Shimon (Bar Kochba),” on one side, and the phrase “Year two of the freedom of Israel” on the other.
“Some of the coins were cleaned by unskilled hands, causing irreversible damage, while others, which may have been excavated recently, have not yet been cleaned,” said Ilan Hadad, the inspector in charge of antiquities commerce, adding that the coins had most likely been unearthed using metal detectors.
Trading in antiquities without a permit, bringing antiquities from the West Bank into Israel without a permit, and searching for antiquities without a license using a metal detector are all criminal offenses under Israeli law.
According to Hadad, the coins were intended to be sold in Israel to illegal antiquities traders or collectors and noted the possibility that some could have ended up in “auction houses abroad.”
The IAA intends to carry out a formal investigation “in order to trace the source of the coins and their intended destination.”
Call to restrict sale of metal detectors in Israel
“We witness every day the expansion of a reprehensible phenomenon,” said Dr. Amir Ganor, director of the Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit. “Ancient coins from all historical periods are looted and removed from antiquities sites by individuals using sophisticated metal detectors.
“It is important to understand that every ancient coin has tremendous value for the study of the country’s past when found [on site] and within its archaeological context,” Ganor explained. “Once a coin is looted and removed from its context, the ability to reconstruct the past through it is irreversibly lost.”
Ganor added that over the past few years, thousands of metal detectors have been brought into Israel “without supervision” and are being used more and more by individuals to illegally treasure hunt at antiquities sites.
The seized coins were most likely looted for financial gain, he said, and now that they have been removed “from their context, we will never know to which archaeological site or historical narrative they once belonged.”
Ganor called for the government to pass a law restricting the “marketing and sale of metal detectors, which are used as destructive tools through which entire chapters of history are erased.”
Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu echoed Ganor’s sentiment, adding that “those who loot antiquities are attempting to destroy our identity and to deny our historical connection to this land.”
He commended the Border Police and IAA inspectors for their action, noting that Israel is fighting the illegal antiquities trade and is working to bring the looters to justice.