Daily Times

Israeli archaeologists have announced that they have discovered a treasure trove of early Islamic gold coins.

These “extremely rare” gold coins date back to the Abbasid era 1100 years ago.

According to Israeli archaeologists, they found the treasure while digging near the central city of Yavne.

As per the joint statement issued by Israeli archaeologists Leit Ndao Zhou and Eli Hadid, the treasure consists of 425 gold coins and it is rare for such rare coins to be discovered.

The coins were unearthed by youth volunteers over the last few days.

“It was amazing,” says Oz Cohen, one of the volunteers who found the hoard. “I dug in the ground and when I excavated the soil, saw what looked like very thin leaves. When I looked again I saw these were gold coins. It was really exciting to find such a special and ancient treasure.”

Hundreds of other smaller clippings from gold coins that would have served as smaller denominations were also discovered.

Initial analysis indicates the coins date back from the late 9th century, according to Robert Kool, a coin expert with the antiquities authority.

The period is is considered the golden age of the Abbasid Caliphate that controlled most of the Near East and North Africa.

“Hopefully the study of the hoard will tell us more about a period of which we still know very little,” Kool said.

The discovery was among the largest caches of ancient coins found in Israel.

In 2015, amateur divers found around 2,000 gold coins off the coast of the ancient port city of Caesarea dating to the Fatimid period in the 10th and 11th centuries.