Palestinian doctor caught smuggling 2nd Temple-era Hebrew coins

Hospital doctor who sought to enter Jerusalem ostensibly for Ramadan prayers nabbed while trying to smuggle in 2,000-year-old coins minted by the Hasmonean kings.

By World Israel News Staff

Dozens of rare, ancient coins dating back roughly 2,000 years to the Second Temple period, many bearing inscriptions in ancient Hebrew, were seized recently during an inspection of a Palestinian Arab vehicle at the Hizma checkpoint, Israeli authorities said.

The discovery was made by Border Police officers and customs inspectors on the first Friday of Ramadan, during the week before the outbreak of the war with Iran.

Authorities suspect the coins were looted from Jewish archaeological sites in Judea and Samaria and were being smuggled into Jerusalem.

The vehicle’s driver, identified as a hospital doctor, is suspected of attempting to transport the coins illegally. After officers found a box containing the artifacts inside the vehicle, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority were called to the scene.

After experts confirmed that the coins were authentic antiquities, the suspect was detained by investigators from the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Theft and taken for questioning at the Shafat Police Station in Jerusalem’s Neve Yaakov neighborhood.

“The origin of the coins is suspected to be antiquities looting carried out using metal detectors. Some of the coins were cleaned by unskilled hands, causing irreversible damage, while others, which may have been excavated recently, have not yet been cleaned,” said Ilan Hadad, an antiquities inspector.

“In my assessment, the coins were intended to be sold in Israel to parties engaged in the illegal antiquities trade or to collectors holding antiquities from dubious sources, and it is possible that some would have made their way to auction houses abroad. We intend to carry out further investigative actions in order to trace the source of the coins and their intended destination.”

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, most of the coins were minted by Jewish rulers during the Second Temple period and the later revolts against Rome. Among them were coins issued under the Hasmonean kings John Hyrcanus I and Alexander Jannaeus.

Also recovered were silver shekels from the Great Revolt against the Romans, dated to the revolt’s second and third years and inscribed in ancient Hebrew with the phrases “Shekel of Israel” and “Jerusalem the Holy.”

Bronze coins from the revolt’s fourth year were also found, featuring an image of the Four Species associated with the festival of Sukkot.

The cache further included coins from the Bar Kokhba Revolt, including bronze pieces bearing the name “Shimon,” a reference to Bar Kokhba, and the inscription “Year Two of the Freedom of Israel.”

Under Israeli law, searching for antiquities without a license using a metal detector is a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison.

Dr. Amir Ganor, director of Antiquities Theft Prevention Unit, said that the looting of artifacts is becoming increasingly common.

“We witness every day the expansion of a reprehensible phenomenon,” Ganor said. “Ancient coins from all historical periods are looted and detached from their context and from antiquities sites by individuals using sophisticated metal detectors.”

“It is important to understand that every ancient coin has tremendous value for the study of the country’s past when found in situ and within its archaeological context. Once a coin is looted and removed from its context, the ability to reconstruct the past through it is irreversibly lost.”