Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

An 11-year-old girl found a rare 2,000-year-old coin from time of the Jewish-Roman War in Jerusalem

(JTA) — A rare silver coin dating from approximately 67-68 CE was found in dirt from excavations at the City of David park in Jerusalem. The lucky discovery was made by none other than an 11-year-old girl, Liel Krutokop, who was visiting the site with her family to sift dirt from an archeological dig when she found the coin.

“We poured the bucket with the dirt on the strainer, and as we filtered the stones that were inside, I saw something round,” Krutokop said of the moment when she found the coin, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority.

After cleaning and examining the coin, archaeologists overseeing the site believe the coin may have been minted by Temple priests sympathetic to the cause of the Jewish rebels against the Romans who controlled Jerusalem at the time. The coin is marked on one side with a cup and the letters “shin” and “bet,” which indicate that it was minted during the second year of the revolt, and on the other side with an inscription associated with the headquarters of the High Priest in the temple and the words “Holy Jerusalem.” That inscription, along with the high quality of silver from which the coin was made, indicate that the coin may have been minted by a priest using metal from the Temple’s own silver reserves.

Dr. Robert Kool, who leads the coin department at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the coin was especially unusual because it was made of silver. “This is a rare find, since out of many thousands of coins discovered to date in archeological excavations, only about 30 coins are coins made of silver, from the period of the Great Revolt,” Kool said.

For her part, Krutokop was pleased to be the one to make the discovery.

“I was lucky to find it, but I also want to say thank you to my sister for choosing the bucket we sifted,” Krutokop said. “If she had not chosen this particular bucket, I probably would not have found the coin.


The post An 11-year-old girl found a rare 2000 year old silver coin from time of the Great Revolt in Jerusalem appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.