{"id":98507,"date":"2022-09-29T17:05:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T15:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=98507"},"modified":"2022-09-17T16:48:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-17T14:48:31","slug":"29-00-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=98507","title":{"rendered":"Rare ‘Quarter Shekel’ coin minted at Temple Mount returned to Israel from US"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Rare ‘Quarter Shekel’ coin minted at Temple Mount returned to Israel from US<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

SAM TABACHNIK\/THE DENVER POST\/TNS <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
The shekel was officially handed over by Americans to Israeli officials Monday during a repatriation ceremony in New York City.<\/strong>
\n.<\/h5>\n

The rare Quarter Shekel coin returned to Israel<\/em><\/span>
\n(photo credit: ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY.)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

One night two decades ago, in a valley outside Jerusalem, a group of looters dug up a startling piece of ancient Jewish history: A silver quarter shekel minted more than 2,000 years ago at\u00a0the Temple Mount<\/a>, one of Judaism\u2019s holiest sites.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel doesn\u2019t have a single one of these coins in its museums. But in 2017, this dime-sized relic appeared for sale at a coin show inside the Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver.<\/span><\/p>\n

Its value: $1 million.\u00a0Now that prized relic is headed home.<\/span><\/p>\n

The shekel was officially handed over to Israeli officials Monday during a repatriation ceremony in New York City, the result of a five-year global investigation that sent authorities on an ancient coin hunt from the Mile High City to Jerusalem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are honored to return the Quarter Shekel, an exceedingly rare coin that has immense cultural value,\u201d Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. said in a statement. His office\u2019s Antiquities Trafficking Unit took over the case this year after agents from Homeland Security Investigations in 2017 seized the coin in Denver.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Ambassador to the United Nations<\/a>, in a statement, called the shekel \u201ca stark reminder of the Jewish people\u2019s millennia-old connection to the land of Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The rare Quarter Shekel coin returned to Israel (credit: NAFTALI SHAVELSON)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Where did the Quarter Shekel come from?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The shekel\u2019s origins hark back to a dark time in Jewish history.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jews in AD 66, living under Roman rule, launched what became known as the \u201cGreat Revolt.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As many as one million Jews were killed during the bitter feud, which included the Romans sacking the sacred temple in Jerusalem. The conflict ended only after the legendary siege and mass suicide atop Masada, where a small group of Jewish rebels killed themselves to avoid being taken by the Romans.<\/span><\/p>\n

The coin, produced in AD 69 during the fourth year of fighting, was used less as currency and more for propaganda reasons: \u201cTo show that the Jewish people were a people,\u201d said Greg Wertsch, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations in Denver.<\/span><\/p>\n

These were expensive coins to produce, the agent said, and thus a rarity.<\/span><\/p>\n

How the coin was stolen and brought back to Israel<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The\u00a0Israeli Antiquities Authority<\/a>\u00a0learned in 2002 that the shekel had been looted in the Ella Valley, a long, shallow swath of land outside Jerusalem believed to be the site of the famous David-versus-Goliath fight, according to the Manhattan DA\u2019s office.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the next two decades, the shekel circulated within the\u00a0illicit antiquities market<\/a>, until it was smuggled from Israel to Jordan \u2014 and finally to London, investigators say.<\/span><\/p>\n

From there, an unnamed person in 2017 used false provenance papers to export the prized object to the United States, where it was put up for sale at Heritage Auctions\u2019 World Coins & Ancient Coins Signature Auction in Denver, authorities said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were many reasons to believe that the coin was not his,\u201d Wertsch said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The seller told investigators that he bought several unwashed coins many years earlier and never really looked at them, Wertsch said. But recently, he told authorities that he realized he had an extremely valuable treasure on his hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis sounds like the story of a grave robber,\u201d Wertsch said, citing what he was told by an expert.<\/span><\/p>\n

The silver artifact wasn\u2019t on a watch list and the auction house didn\u2019t have any reason to believe it to be stolen, the federal agent said.<\/span><\/p>\n

No arrests have been made in the US over the item, Wertsch said. It\u2019s unclear if Israeli or British authorities have taken anyone into custody.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in the summer of 2017, multiple media outlets, including\u00a0The Denver Post<\/em>, previewed the American Numismatic Association\u2019s World\u2019s Fair of Money, which included the ancient coins auction. They teased the valuables for sale \u2014 including early US\u00a0 pennies or octagonal coins from 1900, forged with silver from the Cripple Creek mining district.<\/span><\/p>\n

.
\nThe official ceremony marking the coin’s return to Israeli hands on September 12, 2022 (credit: NAFTALI SHULMAN)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Ancient currencies also would be marketed to attendees,\u00a0The Post<\/em>\u00a0noted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the things we know about ancient civilizations \u2014 the things that are left to tell us about them \u2014 are from the coins they issued,\u201d David Stone, a coin cataloger for Heritage Auctions, told The Post. \u201cYou can tell what someone from 1,000 years ago looked like from a coin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This shekel retains such cultural \u2014 and monetary \u2014 value because there are so few. The DA\u2019s office said it knows of just two. Wertsch said that beside the one that will be returned to Israel, there are only three others of its kind. One sits in the British Museum in London. The other two are still in the wind \u2014 likely looted, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just really nice when we can bring something home that has this value,\u201d Wertsch said. \u201cIt has national value, cultural value, social value, religious value, political value. There\u2019s just so much to it. It\u2019s not just a random coin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rare ‘Quarter Shekel’ coin minted at Temple Mount returned to Israel from US SAM TABACHNIK\/THE DENVER POST\/TNS The shekel was officially handed over by Americans to Israeli officials Monday during a repatriation ceremony in New York City. . The rare Quarter Shekel coin returned to Israel (photo credit: ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY.) One night two decades […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98507"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98537,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98507\/revisions\/98537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}