These Gold Coins Were Stashed in a Stone Wall Nearly 1,400 Years Ago

Smithsonian Magazine ^ | October 11, 2022 | Molly Enking

[SunkenCiv]

Israeli archaeologists have discovered a secret stash of Byzantine-era coins inside a stone wall—where someone may have once tried to hide them.

Made of pure gold, the 44 coins are decorated with portraits of Emperors Phocas and Heraclius, who ruled in the first half of the seventh century. Experts believe the treasure, which is dated to 635 C.E., was hidden during the Muslim conquest of the area around the end of Heraclius' reign.

The artifacts were unearthed as part of a larger excavation in the ancient city of Banias, now a part of Hermon Stream Nature Reserve in the Golan Heights, an area Israel captured from Syria during the Six-Day War...

In 330 C.E. Constantine I established Constantinople, or modern-day Istanbul, as his capital. While the new resulting Byzantine Empire would continue to thrive for more than 1,000 years, it lost several of its provinces to Muslim conquests...

The researchers also note the differences between the portraits displayed on each coin... Gabriela Bijovsky, a coin expert at the IAA, says in the statement. "One can actually follow his sons growing up -- from childhood until their image appears the same size as their father, who is depicted with a long beard."...

During the excavation, researchers at the site also unearthed the remains of buildings, a pottery kiln, bronze coins and fragments of pottery and glass, among other things. The objects date from the end of the Byzantine period in the early 7th century through the 11th–13th centuries.

While the coins were among the older items discovered, they were in remarkably good condition...

Editor's Note, October 13, 2022: This story has been updated to correct the timeline of the Byzantine Empire.

[rxh4n1]

” tried to hide them” Tried? It worked for 1400 years.

[SunkenCiv]

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4102874/posts?page=36#36

[CFW]

My grandkids are going to be excited to find the change jar in the laundry room. No golden coins here.

[SunkenCiv]

While helping my late mother move a curio cabinet (painting? carpet cleaning? I can’t recall), a small coin bank that had belonged to my late father’s mother emerged, I’d never seen it before, and I shook out its contents. Lots of low-value oddball coins that must have arrived in trade in her family’s long-ago business, which I spent an hour or so looking up (those were the days of dialup around here), then returned to the bank. I’d much prefer to have found the secret stash of father’s dad’s gold eagles — but alas, he was po’, and law abiding, and turned them in for FDR’s paper balls.

[CFW]

While helping my late mother move a curio cabinet (painting? carpet cleaning? I can’t recall), a small coin bank that had belonged to my late father’s mother emerged, I’d never seen it before, and I shook out its contents. Lots of low-value oddball coins that must have arrived in trade in her family’s long-ago business, which I spent an hour or so looking up (those were the days of dialup around here), then returned to the bank. I’d much prefer to have found the secret stash of father’s dad’s gold eagles — but alas, he was po’, and law abiding, and turned them in for FDR’s paper balls.

My parent recently passed away and we have been cleaning her house. She kept it pretty clean and organized considering she had lived there sixty years. No great monetary finds, but a lot items that brought back a lot of great memories.

[SunkenCiv]

Same here.