The coin, which seems to have been used by the upper class for ritual purposes, depicts a queen - possibly Arsinoe II, who married her brother Ptolemy II. Head of the Coins Branch at the Antiquities Authority: "This is the heaviest and most expensive ancient gold coin found so far in an excavation in Israel"
A very rare 2200-year-old gold coin was recently discovered in excavations by the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota in Tel Kadesh (near Ramot Naftali on the North Road). The coin was minted in Alexandria by Ptolemy V in 191 BC, and bears the name of Ptolemy II's wife, Arsinoe Philadelphus (the Second).
According to Donald Zvi Ariel, Head of the Coins Branch at the Antiquities Authority, "This is an amazing discovery in the field of coin research. The coin is beautiful, and in a very impressive state of preservation. It is the heaviest and most expensive ancient gold coin ever found in an archaeological dig in Israel, weighing almost one ounce of gold (27.71 grams). This, while the average weight of a gold coin is 4.5 grams." According to Ariel, "It seems that the unique currency was not used for trade purposes and was not used by the people, but was only representative. It can be assumed that the coin was part of a cult for a woman: once a year a holiday was celebrated in honor of Queen Arsinoe, who already in her lifetime rose to the status of a goddess, and the coin was specially minted and, perhaps, given during the ceremonies of that day. The value of the coin is a denominator, which means 'coin equal to one mina' (one hundred silver drachmas)."
On the face of the coin appears a relief of the face of a queen. On the back of the coin are depicted two cornucopias (the Hellenistic symbol symbolizing the blessing of the earth), decorated with ribbons. The meaning of the word 'Philadelphus' in the inscription on the coin is "lover of her brother". Arsinoe II, daughter of King Ptolemy I, married at the age of 15 to Lysymchos, King of Thrace - one of the heirs of Alexander the Great. After the death of Lysymchus, Arsinoe married her brother, Ptolemy II, who made sure to establish a cult in her honor. This Menion coin is evidence of the longevity of the worship, because this coin from Tel Kadesh was minted 80 years after the death of the queen.
According to Ariel, "It is rare to find Ptolemaic coins in Israel from the period after the rise to power of the Slovak dynasty in 200 BCE." The only Ptolemaic gold coin found in the excavation (in Acre) before this find dates from the reign of the Ptolemies themselves, in the 3rd century BCE, and it weighs less than 2 grams."
In the excavations of Tel Kadesh, which have been ongoing since 1997, a large administrative center from the Persian-Hellenistic period was discovered, with halls for receiving guests, a magnificent dining room, many warehouses and an archive. The certificates in the archive were not preserved, while according to the 2,043 stamps found there, the center's flourishing dates to the first half of the second century AD.
According to Donald Ariel, it is not certain that there is a match between the faces of the queens minted on the face of the coin, and the inscription "Arsinoe Philadelphus" on the back of the coin. "It is also possible that the Menion coins from the second century BCE depicted portraits of the reigning monarchs. It is possible that the queen depicted on this coin is indeed Cleopatra I, the daughter of Antiochus III, whose marriage to Ptolemy V was the event that sealed the Fifth Syrian War in 193 BCE.
About 3 years ago a gold hoard of Ptolemy of Alexandria in Egypt appeared on the world antiquities market. This hoard did not include the coins of Ptolemy V, therefore the menion from Tel Kadesh is considered extremely rare.
