By World Israel News Staff
Hundreds of ancient coins from different eras were recently found in a private home in the city of Bnei Brak in central Israel, Israel’s Antiquities Authority (IAA) said earlier this week.
In a sweeping operation carried out by the IAA’s Robbery Prevention Unit, investigators uncovered in Bnei Brak gold coins minted during the Byzantine and Islamic periods, dozens of bronze Hasmonean coins and hundreds of Roman coins.
According to the investigation, the suspect was involved in dealing and smuggling antique artefacts from Israel and abroad.
“The illegal trade in coins and other antiquities creates a source of income for looters and encourages robbery and fatal and irreversible damage to sites around Israel,” said Ilan Hadad, IAA’s trading inspector.
“The looters, who dig at archaeological sites and destroy them for their own greed, disconnect the antiquities from their archaeological context and erase entire chapters from the history of the Land of Israel – stories that will never be told again,” he added.
