Israeli Hiker Finds Rare Roman Gold Coin

JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli archaeologists credit a hiker for the discovery of an ancient gold coin that's being called a world class find.
 
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is praising hiker Laurie Rimon for turning over a 1,900-year-old solid-gold Roman coin. 
 
Rimon found the ancient treasure while walking with friends in the eastern Galilee.
 
"We sat down for a break in one of the ruins and when we got up to leave I was looking down on the ground because [I didn't] want to trip over anything and I see something shiny on the grass – maybe a coin of sorts," Rimon said in an interview provided by the IAA.
 
[I] picked it up, didn't recognize [it and] thought maybe it was a toy, showed it to a few of the other women that were around and they said, 'Lorie you're a millionaire. This is amazing. It's ancient. It's gold,'" Rimon added. 
 
The coin is now in Jerusalem where Dr. Donald Ariel explained its significance to CBN News.
 
"This is a very special coin and the woman was nice enough and civic and agreed to turn the coin over to the national collection," Ariel said.
 
"We're looking at an aureus, a gold coin from the second century C.E.  [A.D.]. The head of the coin depicts Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire, who ruled around the time of Jesus," Ariel added.
 
"You see Augustus' bust but you also see his name, Augustus, and before that "divus." Every emperor beginning with Augustus was deified, underwent apotheosis.
 
Caesar Augustus died around 14 A.D. and the coin was minted about 100 years later.
 
"It was struck by one of Augustus' descendants. His name appears on the back of the coin. That man was an emperor named Trajan," Ariel said.
 
"Trajan dates to the beginning of the second century C.E.," he said. "Trajan struck a special series of coins with the busts of all the earlier emperors on them. For each bust, a different type and this is the earliest one, Augustus."
 
Since the coin was minted, Ariel says, thousands would have been made, but only two have been identified.
 
"What has remained so far in the archaeological record that I know of now, is one other coin in the British Museum – that was purchased – we don't know where it came from – in 1872 by the British Museum. There are certainly other coins like this somewhere, either they haven't turned up or I don't know about them," he said.
 
Ariel said the real story is how a solid gold Roman coin came to be in the Galilee.
 
"We may even guess that a soldier was holding this coin because these coins were paid to soldiers. No civilians would walk around with a gold coin," he said.
 
Though Israel has other gold coins, this one is extremely well preserved and the only one of its kind in Israel's state collection.