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U.S. Returns Looted Ancient Jewish Coin to Israel
(AP) American authorities have returned a 2,000-year-old Jewish coin to Israel nearly two decades after it was looted, smuggled and put up for auction in the U.S., Israel's antiquities authority announced Tuesday. The quarter shekel silver coin, made in the year 69, is one of just two confirmed to exist. The other has been in the British Museum for a century. It was minted during the fourth year of the First Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire in the first century CE. According to the antiquities authority, the coin was one of a hoard stolen by Palestinian looters from the Elah Valley west of Jerusalem - site of the Biblical battle between David and Goliath - in 2002. It was slated to be sold at an auction in August 2017 but was seized by Homeland Security agents before it went on the block.