ArtDaily carries an Associated Press article of 23rd April 2010 (Egypt Finds Hoard of 2,000-Year-Old Bronze Coins) which states that: Archaeologists unearthed 383 bronze coins dating back to King Ptolemy III [...]. The coins were found north of Qarun lake in Fayoum Oasis 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Cairo. [...]The objects will all be displayed in the new Egyptian museum under construction near the pyramids of Giza. The rest of the text is gap-filled by telling the reader what the word "Ptolemaic" means.
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So has the Supreme Council of Antiquities made a supreme idiot of itself, demonstrating that "archaeologists do not know anything about coins"? That is what the coineys over on Moneta-L believe. The most charitable suggestion over there was that fakers had buried a hoard to get a "realistic patina" and the hapless and ignorant archaeologists did not recognise it was a modern hole and thought they were dealing with authentic ancient coins.
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The article seems to be illustrated with stock photos of "some" ptolemaic coins (or what the people supplying them said were ptolemaic coins). I doubt whether they really were suupplied by the Egyptian SCA, and it is quite clear that those putting the articles on the internet have no idea what the coins from this hoard look like, they merely wanted to fill in a space on the page with some pictures of coins.
Anyway that is 238 ptolemiac coins dug up that will be kept together as a group and will be available for study by real numismatists in the future instead of being scattered by the indiscriminate market with all the fakes bought as authentic to geegaw collections in Wisconsin sitting rooms.
Photo 1: "Some of 383 recently-unearthed bronze coins. AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities". Photo 2: "Some of the 383 recently unearthed bronze coins, [...] AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities".
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