Israeli Antiquities Authorities discuss four gold coins discovered during an urban renewal project.
Dated from 10th century Islamic periods in Jerusalem, the coins represent evidence of a change in the cities’ management from the Sunny Abbasid Caliphate to the Shite Fatimid dynasty.
The four coins represent about four month’s wages for a common laborer at the time – approximately two thousand dollars’ value each. That works out to about fifteen dollars an hour US – spread over a forty-hour week before taxes.
Written by Richard Paracka
