Divers find record trove of gold coins in Mediterranean

AFPTel AvivScuba divers have discovered the largest trove of gold coins ever found off the Mediterranean coast - about 2,000 pieces dating back more than 1,000 years. “The treasure of gold coins was found  on the seabed in the ancient harbour in Caesarea,” Israel’s antiquities  authority said in a statement. It was by pure chance that members of a diving club in the Roman-era port had come across the coins, which the authority said weighed nine kilograms but described as “priceless”. “At first they thought they had spotted a toy coin from a game and it was only after they understood the coin was the real thing that they collected several coins and quickly returned to the shore in order to inform the director of the dive club about their find,” it said. Experts from the authority called to the site uncovered “almost 2,000 gold coins in different denominations” circulated by the Fatimid Caliphate, which ruled much of the Middle East and North Africa from 909 to 1171. Officials said excavations would be carried out in the hope of shedding more light on the origin of the treasure.