Filed under: Lynnette Khalfani-Cox
The head of the coin has an image of Queen Arsinoe II Philadelphus; the tail features overlapping cornucopias decorated with fillets, experts say. For all of you living in Philadelphia, PA you probably already know that's why Philly is called "The City of Brotherly Love." The word Philadelphus means "brotherly love." But in the case of this rare coin, it's related to the fact that Queen Arsinoe was married to her brother, Ptolemy II.
Gross, I know. But the practice of siblings getting hitched actually wasn't uncommon back then, scholars say. Anyway, in case you're wondering -- yes, this gold coin is apparently worth big bucks. Exactly how much? Stay tuned. For now, antiquities experts are only saying "a lot." Dr. Donald T. Ariel, head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the coin ranked among the top five of the rarest finds in that country's history.
"Intrinsically, for coin research, it's a very exciting find," Ariel told CNN. "This is an amazing numismatic find. The coin is beautiful and in excellent preservation. It is the heaviest gold coin with the highest contemporary value of any coin ever found in an excavation in Israel."
Kind of makes you want to buy gold, huh? Or at least rummage through great grandma's attic to see if you can dig up any old treasures of your own.
Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, an award-winning financial news journalist and former Wall Street Journal reporter for CNBC, has been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, and the New York Times, as well as magazines ranging from Essence and Redbook to Black Enterprise and Smart Money. Check out her New York Times best seller 'Zero Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom.'