Scuba divers have discovered the largest trove of gold coins ever found off Israel's Mediterranean coast -- about 2,000 pieces dating back more than 1,000 years, the country's antiquities authority said Tuesday. 
 
 
 
 "The largest treasure of gold coins discovered in Israel was found in recent weeks on the seabed in the ancient harbour in Caesarea," the 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 (almost 20 pounds) 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. 
 
 
 
 Kobi Sharvit, director of the marine archaeology unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said excavations would be carried out in the hope of shedding more light on the origin of the treasure. 
 
 
 
 "There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected," said Sharvit. 
 
 
 
 "Perhaps the treasure of coins was meant to pay the salaries of the Fatimid military garrison which was stationed in Caesarea and protected the city. 
 
 
 
 "Another theory is that the treasure was money belonging to a large merchant ship that traded with the coastal cities and the port on the Mediterranean Sea and sank there," he said. 
 
 
 
 The Israeli Antiquities Authority declined to put a cash value on the coins, which it said had been exposed as a result of winter storms. 
 
 
 
 The find was "so valuable that its priceless," spokeswoman Yoli Schwartz told AFP, adding the haul was now the property of the state, and that there was no finder's fee. 
 
 ||||| The largest collection of gold coins yet discovered in Israel was found in recent weeks on the seabed in the ancient harbor in Caesarea National Park, the Antiquities Authority said. 
 
 
 
 A group of divers from the diving club in the harbor reported the find to the Antiquities Authority whose officials then went with the divers to the location with a metal detector and uncovered almost 2,000 gold coins from the Fatimid period (11th century CE) in various denominations: dinars, half dinars and quarter dinars, of various dimensions and weight. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Kobi Sharvit, director of the Marine Archeology Unit at the Antiquities Authority, said on Tuesday there is likely a wreck near the find of an official Fatimid treasury ship that was on its way to the central government in Cairo with tax revenue.Alternatively, the coins were meant to pay the salaries of the Fatimid military garrison that was stationed in Caesarea, or they belonged to a large merchant ship, he said.Sharvit said the divers, Tzvika Feuer, Kobi Tweena, Avivit Fishler, Yoav Lavi and Yoel Miller, were model citizens for reporting the treasure to the Antiquities Authority.“They discovered the gold and have hearts of gold that love the country and its history,” he said.The Antiquities Law provides for a punishment of up to five years in jail for the illegal removal or sale of antiquities.The oldest coin found is a quarter dinar minted in Palermo, Sicily in the second half of the ninth century CE, the authority said. Most of the coins were minted under the Fatimid caliphs Al-Hakim (996– 1021 CE) and his son Al-Zahir (1021–1036), and were produced in Egypt or elsewhere in North Africa.The Fatimids developed Caesarea and other coastal cities in the area.Robert Cole, an expert numismaticist with the Antiquities Authority, said the coins are in an excellent state of preservation, and despite the fact they were at the bottom of the sea for about a thousand years, they did not require any cleaning or conservation intervention from the metallurgical laboratory.“Several of the coins that were found in the assemblage were bent and exhibit teeth and bite marks, evidence they were ‘physically’ inspected by their owners or the merchants,” Cole said.
– Many divers search long and hard for sunken treasure, but an Israeli diving club out for a recent dive in their local harbor struck literal gold by chance: 2,000 priceless gold coins that had been sitting on the seabed for about 1,000 years, the largest stash of gold ever found in Israel, reports the Jerusalem Post. The Israel Antiquities Authority says the coins appear to date back to between 909 and 1171, and that they're from North Africa and the Middle East. "There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected," an IAA rep tells AFP. Another theory: The coins could have been to pay soldiers stationed at the local garrison. Some of the coins show bite marks—indicating that they were at some point examined up close and personal for authenticity, notes AFP—but are otherwise in excellent condition. The divers at first thought the stash, found in the harbor at Caesarea National Park on Israel's Mediterranean coastline, was made up of toy coins, but they quickly reported the find when they realized it was the real deal. "They discovered the gold and have a heart of gold that loves the country and its history," says the IAA rep. But thanks and praise is all they get: No finder's fee, says the IAA. (Check out how much gold was found last year on a shipwreck dating back to 1857.)