A Young Archaeologist Stumbled Upon a 2,000-Year-Old Coin With Huge Implications

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A Young Archaeologist Stumbled Upon a 2,000-Year-Old Coin With Huge Implications
Emma Frederickson
Popular Mechanics
Tue, August 26, 2025 at 2:00 PM EDT
3 min read



An Expert Just Found a Coin With Huge Implications scaliger - Getty Images


Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

*Excavations on a parking lot in Jerusalem revealed a rare gold coin from more than 2,000 years ago.

*The coin depicts Queen Berenice II of Egypt—a queen who once ordered the murder of a potential suitor.

*Experts say the new discovery reframes previous notions of Jerusalem’s past.


The Israel Antiquities Authority just struck gold—literally. Excavation on a parking lot at the City of David National Park in Jerusalem, Israel, unearthed a rare coin that experts say is more than 2,000 years old.

The discovery was made by a young excavator at the site. “I was sifting the soil when suddenly I saw something shiny,” Rivka Langler said in a translated statement. “At first I couldn’t believe it, but then I realized it was a gold coin. Within seconds I was running in excitement across the excavation. I’ve been digging here for two years, and now I finally found gold!”

Archeologists date the coin between 241 B.C. and 246 B.C. It is made out of pure gold (99.3%) and bears the portrait of Queen Berenice II of Egypt. In the portrait, on the “heads” side of the coin, Berenice II is depicted as wearing a diadem (ornate headpiece), veil, and necklace—all of which were typical fashion for a Hellenistic queen. On the “tails” side, the coin is decorated with a cornucopia, signifying prosperity and fertility. The cornucopia is also bordered by two stars and a Greek inscription reading “of Queen Berenice.”

Queen Berenice lived from 269 B.C. to 221 B.C., and her life was something of a Hollywood blockbuster. Her mother tried to marry her off to Demetrius the Fair, a Macedonian prince, to better their colony’s alliances. However, Berenice wasn’t too keen on the idea, and promptly arranged for Demetrius’ murder. She later married Ptolemy III Euergetes, king of Egypt. When Ptolemy set off to avenge his sister’s death, Berenice dedicated a lock of her hair for his return. A court astronomer declared that the lock then transferred to the heavens, forming the constellation Coma Berenices, meaning “hair of Berenice.”

It isn’t just Berenice’s epic life that makes this newly-discovered coin so special, however. According to experts, only 20 of these coins have been found worldwide, and this was first discovered in “a proper archaeological context.”

“As far as we know, the coin is the only one of its kind discovered outside Egypt, the center of Ptolemaic rule,” Robert Kool (Head of Numismatics at the Israel Antiquities Authority) and Haim Gitler (Chief Curator of Archaeology and Numismatics at the Israel Museum) said in the statement. “Berenice appears not only as the king’s consort, but possibly as a ruler in her own right. This is among the earliest cases of a Ptolemaic queen depicted on a coin with her title during her lifetime.”

According to the excavation directors Yiftah Shalev and Efrat Bocher, the discovery challenges long-held notions of Jerusalem’s history. Previously, researchers believed Jerusalem was a small, poor town after 586 B.C., but the coin suggests that the city was recovering and rebuilding ties with major powerhouses of the time.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/young-archaeologist-stumbled-upon-2-180000320.html