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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2373090, member: 19463&quot;]No soldier in the 225 denarii a year group would have been paid in gold.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; The best example here are the Roman coins found in the northern US which do not mean that one of Allectus&#039; ships got lost running from his defeat.&nbsp; 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&#039;t prove that either.&nbsp; For an official in the State Antiquities hierarchy to make such a comment with no basis is not a good sign.&nbsp;&nbsp; Without more information, it remains a cool coin but there is no proof that it has any relevance to Israel&#039;s ancient past.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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