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V11 2008 INDEX
E-SYLUM ARCHIVE
JERUSALEM MAN ARRESTED FOR SELLING ANCIENT COINS TO TOURISTS
Arthur Shippee forwarded another item from the Jerusalem
Post - this one is about a man arrested for selling illegally excavated
ancient coins. -Editor
A 43-year-old Arab resident of east Jerusalem
has been arrested for allegedly posing as a city tour guide and selling
tourists various rare antique coins, the Israel Antiquities Authority said
Tuesday. The suspected antiquities thief was nabbed red-handed on Sunday in the Old City of Jerusalem by the state-run archeological body's anti-theft division in the midst of making a sale to unsuspecting tourists.
The suspect was found to be carrying around 100 impressive antique coins of various shapes and sizes, including Roman coins and a motley collection of other coins dating back to the Hellenistic Period.
The coins, which were taken from various archeological sites across the country, are valued in the thousands of dollars.
"It is important that the public know that antique coins which are being offered for sale on the street and in markets were illegally excavated at archeological sites throughout Israel," said Shai Bar-Tura, the deputy head of the Antiquities Authority's anti-theft division.
"Our history is being sold for greed," he said.
The phenomenon of antiquities theft has taken on gold-rush dimensions with an antiquities site now plundered nearly every day on average.
To read the complete article, see: Man posing as J'lem tour guide nabbed for selling ancient coins to tourists (http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218710408521&
pagename=JPArticle/ShowFull)
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
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