2,200-year-old Egyptian minted gold coin found in Israel

A rare gold coin dating back more than two millennia to the year 191 BC has been found at a dig in northern Israel, the antiquities authority said on Wednesday. It was minted in Alexandria, Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy V in 191 BC and bears the name of the wife of Ptolemy II, Arsinoe Philadephus (II).

"The coin is beautiful and in excellent preservation. It is the heaviest gold coin with the highest contemporary value of any coin ever found in an excavation in Israel," Dr Donald T.Ariel, head of the authority's coin department, said in a statement.

The coin weighs almost one ounce (27.71 grams), whereas most ancient gold coins weighed 4.5 grams, he added.

Read more: AFP