IDF Soldier Finds Rare 1,800-Year-Old Coin While on Maneuver Almost anywhere you walk in Israel, the present meets the ancient past February 9, 2021 | TPS Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 IDF soldier Ido Gardi was on a training exercise on the slopes of Mount Carmel in northern Israel when he noticed something different on the ground. It was an ancient and rare coin, bearing the head of the Roman emperor Antonius Pius and dating from 158–159 AD. Very few coins of this kind have been found in Israel. Dr. Donald Tzvi Ariel, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) Numismatics Department, noted that “this coin joins only 11 such coins from known locations in the National Treasures Department collection. All the coins were found in northern Israel, from Megiddo and Zippori to Tiberias and Arbel.”