Overview

• The Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled the discovery on July 31, deliberately timing the announcement ahead of Tisha B’Av to evoke commemoration of the Temple’s fall.
• Experts highlight that Year Four coins are scarce because rebel minting capacity waned during Jerusalem’s siege, making this example a rare window into late-stage revolt identity.
• Archaeologists recovered the coin from a fortification trench near the Temple Mount measuring about nine meters deep and over thirty meters wide, underscoring the scale of ancient defenses.
• Media coverage has linked the artifact to Gospel accounts of Jesus’s prophecy about the Temple’s destruction, though the IAA frames that as interpretive context rather than a new archaeological claim.
• After conservation, the bronze coin will be exhibited at Jerusalem’s Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel.