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Author Topic: "Joseph-Era" Coins Found in Egypt?  (Read 3889 times)

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Retrospectator

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Offline Danny S. Jones

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Re: "Joseph-Era" Coins Found in Egypt?
« Reply #1 on: September 28, 2009, 07:54:05 am »
I'm not sure what to make of this, but if these objects were truly used as currency in ancient Egypt, then this is a remarkable discovery indeed, whether or not they can be classified as true "coins". Most of these are not just precious metal, but inscribed stones, gems, ivory, etc. Remember the era they are claiming that these were in circulation is c. 1500-1450 B.C. (Hundreds of years before the minting of the first known coinage.)

Here is the article posted by MEMRI, and the picture of the objects in question.
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD256109

also another link:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/133601

Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: "Joseph-Era" Coins Found in Egypt?
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2009, 03:45:00 pm »
It sounds as though someone may have started out looking for something on the basis of the Qur'an, which has similar stories to the Bible, and, not surprisingly, found it. A lot of Palestinian archaeology is on that level, so he's not alone.

I'm not sure whether the Qur'an does or doesn't refer to coin in this context. Translations vary, I have no Arabic, and I don't have the same resources for it as I do for the Old Testament. The version of the story in Genesis, on which the Qur'anic version is based, refers to 'silver' as a unit of exchange. It could easily be a reference to shekel weights of silver rather than coin, and the story will have been written no earlier than the mid-First Millennium BC. I think Dr Thabet and his colleagues are failing to consider the date of their written sources, and before I believe any of it, I'd like to see some solid evidence that these objects were indeed circulating as coin.
Robert Brenchley

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nemo

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Re: "Joseph-Era" Coins Found in Egypt?
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2009, 05:56:30 pm »
The objects in the photos are scarabs. Joseph would have lived a millennium or so before the invention of coins.
 
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=scarabs%20and%20cylinders
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/NumisWiki/view.asp?key=scarabs

Offline Danny S. Jones

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Re: "Joseph-Era" Coins Found in Egypt?
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2009, 12:49:10 am »
The objects in the photos are scarabs. Joseph would have lived a millennium or so before the invention of coins.
 

I don't see anything in that photo that even slightly resembles a coin. (Other than a US dime) They sure look like scarabs to me.

Offline commodus

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Re: "Joseph-Era" Coins Found in Egypt?
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2009, 12:15:36 pm »
What a load of nonsense!
Silly groundless conjecture attempting to "revise" established historical fact to depict scarabs as coins.
Eric Brock (1966 - 2011)

Offline R@msum

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Re: "Joseph-Era" Coins Found in Egypt?
« Reply #6 on: April 17, 2021, 09:01:12 pm »
Dear All

I was looking for information about the historical flow of coins, and
I came across an article about Joseph era coins in Egypt. Can you help
me to explain the truth of the news? Is there any archeology who
agrees or disputes these findings? Was the find a coin or was it just
a scarab? I look forward to hearing from you, for my study purposes.
Thank you for your time

 

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