{"id":15344,"date":"2026-08-11T15:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=15344"},"modified":"2026-08-11T15:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:17:18","slug":"2500-year-old-cyprus-coin-discovered-on-israeli-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/2500-year-old-cyprus-coin-discovered-on-israeli-beach.html","title":{"rendered":"2,500-Year-Old Cyprus Coin Discovered on Israeli Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Israel Antiquities Authority<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A beach worker in Israel found a rare 2,500-year-old coin and it\u2019s offering some insight into ancient trade in the region. Avi Chaprak, Ashdod Beaches Department Deputy Director, was doing a routine search of the beach for items that might have been lost by beachgoers when he stumbled upon the coin. Having seen similar coins, Chaprak immediately recognized it might be significant and handed it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) for further analysis.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the IAA determined the coin dated from around the 5th<\/sup> century BC, when the area it was found was inhabited by Persians. Researchers believe the coin would have been minted in in Salamis, a city that sat on Cyprus\u2019 eastern shoreline during the Persian Empire. The coin weighs about 11 grams and was determined to be what is known as a siglos<\/em>, which were common during the Persian Empire. On one side of the coin there is a left-facing recumbent ram, with the other side featuring a left-facing ram\u2019s head set within a sunken square frame. There is a vertical laurel branch placed beside the head and three symbols, which may be Cypriot syllabic script.<\/p>\n

However, the coin did have an unusual characteristic. \u201cAt 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; a known phenomenon in Cypriot silver\u00a0coins\u00a0from this period, given the shortage of silver on the island,\u201d Yanniv David Levy, researcher and curator at the IAA\u2019s Coin Department, said in a statement<\/a>. That the coin was found at all was exceptional, according to Levy. \u201cCoins of this size and value from the Persian period are rare altogether in the archaeological record. Usually, silver coins of this size were not preserved intact. Over time, they were cut into small pieces,\u00a0for use as local trade currency.\u201d Evang\u00e9line Markou, a senior researcher at the National Hellenic Research Foundation and an expert in ancient Cypriot coinage, agreed on the coin\u2019s rarity. \u201cSalamis coins from the fifth century B.C.E. were circulating throughout the eastern Mediterranean. However, finds with an exact provenance are rarer, so this coin potentially offers significant information about trade ties and movement between Cyprus and the Land of Israel during this period.\u201d Such a rare coin, according to Markou, could offer \u201csignificant information about trade ties and movement between Cyprus and the Land of Israel during this period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaprak received recognition for finding and reporting the coin to the IAA. \u201cI commend Avi Chaprak, who acted responsibly and transferred the coin to the Israel\u00a0Antiquities\u00a0Authority,\u201d said Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu. \u201cThe public\u2019s cooperation in reporting on antiquities makes it possible to preserve the heritage assets that belong to all of us, to deepen knowledge about the country\u2019s past, and to ensure that the finds will be preserved and studied for the benefit of future generations.\u201d For Chaprak, he said turning it in was an obvious decision. \u201cFor me, it was clear that the coin belonged to our collective heritage, so I immediately delivered it to the Israel Antiquities Authority. If through this act I contributed another small piece toward the research and history of the Land of Israel, then that is a great honor for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A beach worker in Israel found a rare 2,500-year-old coin and it\u2019s offering some insight into ancient trade in the region. Avi Chaprak, Ashdod Beaches Department Deputy Director, was doing a routine search of the beach for items that might have been lost by beachgoers when he stumbled upon the coin. Having seen similar coins,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":15347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n2,500-Year-Old Cyprus Coin Discovered on Israeli Beach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A rare 2,500-year-old coin found on an Israeli beach is offering new clues about ancient trade between Cyprus and the Land of Israel.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2026\/08\/2500-year-old-cyprus-coin-discovered-on-israeli-beach.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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