There are only 20 coins like this in the entire world, and one was just rediscovered

A tiny gold coin from about 2,200 years ago just turned up in Jerusalem, and it is not just pocket change. The quarter sized piece shows Queen Berenice II of Egypt

The coin’s design hints at a city far richer and more connected in the third century BCE than many people thought possible – a claim backed by curators and field archaeologists who examined the find.

On one side sits Berenice wearing a royal headband and veil, with a necklace around her neck. On the other, a cornucopia appears with two stars and a Greek line that reads of Queen Berenice.

The Queen Berenice coin

The coin is a small quarter-drachma, a denomination used in Greek style money systems. Tests indicate it is 99.3 percent gold and dates to 246 to 241 BCE under the rule of Ptolemy III.

It is now under study by Dr. Robert Kool of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), a specialist in numismatics. He and colleagues compare its details to known Berenice coin types to confirm the mint and the message on the coin.

“I was sifting the excavation soil when suddenly I saw something shiny. I picked it up and realized it was a gold coin,” said Rivka Langler, an excavator at the site.

The piece surfaced during routine soil sifting near the Givati Parking Lot excavation in the City of David National Park. 

Field teams flagged the area, logged the context, and moved the coin to a lab for close inspection. That careful chain of work is why specialists call this the first example of its kind from a clear archaeological context.

Reading the royal portrait

Berenice appears as a Hellenistic queen, a style that followed Alexander the Great across the Eastern Mediterranean.

The portrait shows a diadem, a thin royal band, and a veil, both visual signs of authority for queens of the period.

The reverse shows a cornucopia, a horn filled with produce, which in this context signals prosperity and good fortune.

Two small stars flank the horn and a Greek legend circles the field, which numismatists transliterate as basilisses, meaning of the queen.

Why this tiny piece matters

The inscription matters because it names the queen directly. It is an early case of a Ptolemaic queen appearing with the title during her lifetime, which suggests unusual status and influence.

“The fact that such a rare gold coin was discovered in Jerusalem during the time when it was under Ptolemaic rule provides a fascinating glimpse into the city’s status in those years and possible relations between the Jerusalem authorities and the Ptolemaic Empire,” said Yiftah Shalev, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Women, power, and coins

Scholars have mapped Berenice’s coinage in detail, noting portraits, legends, and the spread of types across mints. A 2020 study shows how her image and titles circulated and how those choices carried political weight.

The legend on this coin, of the queen, aligns with that broader picture. It points to a woman who could appear on money not just as a spouse but as an independent figure with documented agency.

War, pay, and Alexandria

The mint was probably Alexandria, the capital of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Many researchers think coins like this could have served as donatives, small bonuses paid to soldiers after campaigns.

Those campaigns included the Ptolemaic fight with the Seleucid kingdom in what historians call the Third Syrian War, which lasted about 245 to 241 BCE and set the great Hellenistic rivals against each other along the Levant. That timeline matches the dating on the coin.

Rarity of this Queen Berenice coin

Specialists emphasize that coins of this exact type are extremely scarce.

It is the first found outside Egypt in an excavation that recorded its layer, location, and context in detail, which gives it research value beyond the coin itself.

“As far as we know, the coin is the only one of its kind discovered outside Egypt, the center of Ptolemaic rule. Berenice appears not only as the king’s consort, but possibly as a ruler in her own right,” said Kool.

The coin suggests that Jerusalem in the mid third century BCE was tied into major political and economic systems. It hints at a city connected to trade, soldiers on the move, and money that flowed with imperial campaigns.

It also feeds a growing body of work that argues for a recovering and ambitious city after the First Temple’s fall.

The Berenice coin’s presence in a managed excavation area adds data that push that argument beyond theory and toward measured evidence.

Learning from the Queen Berenice coin

The City of David team plans to display the coin with other finds from the same area. Organizers scheduled its first public showing for early September during the annual City of David Research Conference.

Visitors will see a portrait that once spoke to power, wealth, and identity. They will also see how a small object can pull a distant past into sharp focus.

Coins are not just money. They are artifacts that carry images, words, and choices made by rulers and their mints.

When a coin shows up in a sealed layer, its message can be read with confidence. When that message reshapes how we view a city’s past, students get a real look at how evidence changes history.

The team did not need a hoard to make this case. One coin, carefully recovered, tied to a secure layer, and checked against scholarly corpora, can do the job. That is the classroom lesson here. Provenience plus careful reading equals reliable history.

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