In the wake of a joint smuggling probe, the US has given Israel a coin that was part of a nearly 2,000-year-old Jewish revolt against Roman control.
The “exceedingly rare” quarter shekel was minted in AD 69, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which held a repatriation ceremony in New York on Monday, estimated its value at over $1 million.
The action was taken 20 years after Israeli officials first learnt through sources that the silver coin had been found in the Ella Valley, south of Jerusalem, by antiquities robbers. It is thought to be a part of a stash of coins that criminals discovered in the region, which is home to many significant archaeological sites.
According to investigators, the item was purchased illegally before being trafficked through Jordan to the UK. Then, it was shipped to the US using fraudulent documentation. The coin was scheduled to be auctioned off in Denver, Colorado, but was instead taken by Homeland Security agents in 2017.
The coin has “immense cultural value,” according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., who noted that despite the investigation’s complexity, his team of prosecutors, analysts, and agents working with Israeli authorities was able to locate it in a couple of months.
In AD 6, the Romans conquered the kingdom of Judaea, but resistance to their rule resulted in a string of uprisings known as the Jewish-Roman Wars. The currency was made during the First Jewish Revolt, also known as the Great Jewish Revolt, which started in AD 66 and lasted for four years.
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In some regions of their empire, including Judaea, the Romans had permitted the creation and circulation of particular regional coinage. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), rebel commanders covered the emperor’s visage on imperial coins by adding “Jewish motifs.” It was “a declaration of independence by the Jews in the land of Israel, a statement against the mighty empire that stood before them,” according to an IAA press release.
The British Museum bought a coin in the 1930s that is the only other quarter shekel of a similar design that the IAA is aware of. It estimates that “approximately three” more are also available on the illegal market.
Senior Israeli officials, including Gilad Erdan, the nation’s ambassador to the UN, were present for the coin’s return ceremony. The repatriation of the object, according to IAA director Eli Eskosido, “marks the beginning of a very positive and important trend for the restoration of cultural heritage items.”
(with inputs from agencies)
