Stolen coin minted almost 2000 years ago worth $1m returned to Israel after years-long hunt

By Adeleye Kunle

After a police search spanning 20 years, a quarter shekel coin from as far back as 69 AD, one of only four of its kind known to exist and worth $1m, has been returned to the state of Israel.

The silver coin was minted during a Jewish revolt nearly 2,000 years ago but stolen from Israel in 2002.

The search for the coin began when the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) were told by informants that the coin had been taken by Palestinians from a hoard unearthed in the Ella Valley, south of Jerusalem.

The IAA says it spent the next ten years and six months trying to locate the coin, which passed through illicit antiques markets in Israel, Jordan and the UK. It was eventually exported to the US for sale at an auction in Denver, Colorado, in 2017.

The IAA alerted US Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which then took administrative custody of the coin. The investigation was passed to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU), which obtained a court order to repatriate the coin based on information from informants in five countries along with help from authorities in Europe and the Middle East.