Rare Gold Coin of Queen Berenice II of Egypt, Dated Around 2,200 Years Old, Discovered in the City of David

A very rare gold coin, bearing the portrait of the Egyptian Queen Berenice II, was discovered in the Givati Parking Lot excavations in the City of David National Park, conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The coin is a small quarter-drachma made of pure gold (99.3%), dated to 241–246 BCE, during the reign of her husband, Ptolemy III. Only about 20 such coins are known worldwide, and this is the first ever discovered in a proper archaeological context.

The obverse shows Berenice as a Hellenistic queen, with a diadem, veil, and necklace. The reverse depicts a cornucopia, symbol of prosperity and fertility, flanked by two stars, with the Greek inscription “of Queen Berenice.”

The coin was found while sifting soil by Rivka Langler, a young excavator at the Givati site: “I was sifting the soil when suddenly I saw something shiny. At first I couldn’t believe it, but then I realized it was a gold coin. Within seconds I was running in excitement across the excavation. I’ve been digging here for two years, and now I finally found gold!”

“As far as we know, the coin is the only one of its kind discovered outside Egypt, the center of Ptolemaic rule,” said Dr. Robert Kool, Head of Numismatics at the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Dr. Haim Gitler, Chief Curator of Archaeology and Numismatics at the Israel Museum. “Berenice appears not only as the king’s consort, but possibly as a ruler in her own right. This is among the earliest cases of a Ptolemaic queen depicted on a coin with her title during her lifetime.”

According to excavation directors Dr. Yiftah Shalev (IAA) and Efrat Bocher (CSAJ), the discovery challenges the long-held view that Jerusalem after 586 BCE was a small, poor town. Instead, the coin – with other finds from the mid-3rd century BCE – shows Jerusalem was recovering, renewing ties with major political, economic, and cultural centers of the time.

Photography: Emil Aladjem, Israel Antiquities Authority; Eliyahu Yanai, City of David; Asaf Peri, City of David.