Divers stumble across Israel's biggest ever discovery of gold coins

The divers initially thought the gleaming object they noticed on the seafloor off the Israeli coast was a toy coin from a game. But they quickly realized they had stumbled across something a whole lot more valuable in the ancient Mediterranean harbor of Caesarea. Their chance discovery a few weeks ago led to a trove of nearly 2,000 gold coins that had languished at the bottom of the sea for about 1,000 years, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Tuesday. It's the biggest hoard of gold coins ever discovered in Israel -- and it could lead to further archaeological finds. "There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected," said Kobi Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the antiquities authority. He offered other theories about the origin of the treasure.