RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL—According to a statement released by the Israel Antiquities Authority, a soldier on a training exercise in northern Israel discovered a second-century A.D. coin and handed it over to regional authorities. Researcher Donald Tzvi Ariel said the discovery of only 11 such coins has been documented. All of them were found at sites in northern Israel, including Megiddo, Zippori, Tiberias, and Arbel. This coin may have been dropped by someone walking along one of the ancient roads in the region. Antoninus Pius, Roman emperor from A.D. 138 to 161, is shown on the coin’s obverse. The image on the reverse depicts the Syrian moon god MEN, and is accompanied by the year 217, or about A.D. 158 or 159, and the words “of the people of Geva Phillipi,” the city where the coin was minted. Avner Ecker of Bar-Ilan University explained that in civic year 217, cities were granted the right to mint their own coins and establish a municipal council for self-government within the Roman Empire. To read about a coin minted during the very brief reign of a Gallic emperor, go to "Artifact."
