This photo shows a detail of Fatimid-period gold coins that were found in the seabed in the Mediterranean Sea near the port of Caesarea National Park in Caesarea, Israel, Feb. 18, 2015. Ariel Schalit/AP Photo
Scuba divers have discovered the largest trove of gold coins ever found off the Israel Mediterranean coast. The trove consisted of around 2,000 pieces, which date back more than 1000 years!
Kobi Sharvit, director of the marine archaeology unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority said “There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected.” “Another theory is that the treasure was money belonging to a large merchant ship that traded with the coastal cities and the port on the Mediterranean Sea and sank there,”
The Israel Antiquities Authority declined to put a cash value on the coins, saying “so valuable that it’s priceless.” Unfortunately for the divers, the coins are now property of the state, and there was no finder’s fee.