Extremely rare gold ancient bearing the image of Augustus discovered by a hiker

I think its more like a "collective farm" that actually works, not to be confused with the USSR example that was a disaster. But in Israel, the state owns artifacts that are found on both public and private land. Great Britain definately has the best options. I remember someone in my profession was weeding their flowerbed, while cultivating the earth, up came a AV Aureus of Carausius! Well, unlike myself who would have added it to my coll./ this person was not interested....and she had it auctioned off for 450,000 UK Pounds. The British Museum had first crack at it...burt could not afford it. So, it went to someone with deep pockets, and good taste. Strange as it may seem, I have maintained flowerbeds as infinitum, never found any coin....not even a penny! Born UNLUCKY I guess.
John

 

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The amount of pay "each payday" depends, of course, on how frequently paydays occur. In this case, where pay was supposed to be 225 denarii per year , that would be three occasions of 75 each, which would be pay every four months. At 25 denarii per aureus, that would be three gold pieces.

However, the truth may be far more complicated that the Israeli authority, Dr. Ariel, suggests. There is quite a bit of evidence that the nominal pay was not all actually paid (any more than your nominal salary all comes to you, after taxes, medical insurance, retirement, etc. deductions). There may have been many deductions for clothing, etc. and much may have been withheld for a discharge bonus like a pension plan. Promises like that count as "pay" but the army might not actually have to pay out later if you die in the line of duty.

So, pay may have been, nominally, 225 denarii per year but it is highly doubtful that it actually resulted in 3 gold pieces every four months.

 

No soldier in the 225 denarii a year group would have been paid in gold. The coin could have been part of the pay of a centurion or higher ranking officer but this coin was a special issue and probably never was part of a regular salary payment. I would have to leave open the possibility that the coin did not travel to the find spot until later and, perhaps, was lost by an immigrant collector after WWII or anytime in the intervening centuries. Any find of an out of context item found while hiking can not be explained by a story made up by me or anyone else. The best example here are the Roman coins found in the northern US which do not mean that one of Allectus' ships got lost running from his defeat. I like the story that they were part of the dredged material used as ballast in empty westbound ships of the early fur trade but we can't prove that either. For an official in the State Antiquities hierarchy to make such a comment with no basis is not a good sign. Without more information, it remains a cool coin but there is no proof that it has any relevance to Israel's ancient past.

 

I think you're all reading too much into it. Ariel was simply relating the find to an an event that most Israelis would be familiar with, and giving some basic idea of the coin's buying power. I think this is a perfectly reasonable response for a newspaper article.

 

When I was 12 years old we were told that newspapers were written on a 12 year old reading level. Keeping that in mind, perhaps you are right. I apologize to the 12 year olds I know who are not being well served by newspapers but I'm told none of them read newspapers anyway.

 

I hiked about 3 miles this morning but didn,t find any gold. Maybe tomorrow i,ll have better luck.

 

Totally jealous. I just went hiking and I found neither kibbutz nor koin anywhere in sight.

Archaeology is all around people (and under their feet!) in that part of the world. I remember talking to a coworker whose family was from Lebanon, and he recalled hikes that led to caves with crosses carved into them by crusading knights, alongside roman glyphs, etc.

 

I find cents and dimes all the time in my walmart parking lot.

 

With 2 known, probably $75-200K

I saw a R-1 Trajan Aureus in FDC go for 75,000 EUROS, this would be a R-5. Even the Elagalabus I posted, which is listed in Calico as Scarce went in Ars Classica auction for 65K SFRS. Even just now in Kunker a Stempelglanz (mintstate) JulianII Solidus went for 19K EUROS...everything is going UP! Big time. With World economies in the dumpster, many are turning to the only REAL safe haven....RARE Coins.

 

I am amazed there is so little added factor of the coin being a Restoration piece. None of them are common; many unique. I do believe most people who buy aurei would pay more for a R1 FDC than for a worn REST. CNG did sell an Augustus REST for $90k but it was nicer and had the crocodile reverse to offset there being three others in museums. It makes no difference. The coin probably will not be sold. This would be an interesting one to run through the auction records just to rule out it being a modern loss.