An extremely rare, nearly 2000-year-old silver coin from the period of the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans was returned to Israeli officials on Monday following a joint operation by U.S. law enforcement and the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The quarter shekel coin, which has been dated to the year 69 C.E., a year before the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, was returned to Israeli authorities in a ceremony at the offices of the Manhattan District Attorney. Only four other coins of this type are known to exist, and none of them were found on-site through an organized archeological dig. All five coins appear to have been looted from archaeological sites in Israel. 

One is in the British Museum, which acquired it in the 1930s. The other three are believed to be in the hands of private collectors, making the rounds on the black market in antiquities and among various collectors – as the newly recovered one was. 

The coin was turned over Monday to Israel’s ambassador to the United Nationsת Gilad Erdan, Israel Antiquities Authority director general Eli Eskozido and Asaf Zamir, the Israeli consul general in New York.

It was apparently found in 2002 in an illegal dig in the Elah Valley area southwest of Jerusalem by Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills. According to the Bible, the Elah Valley was the site of the battle between David and Goliath.

The Palestinian looters found the rare quarter shekel among a hoard of coins, and sold it. The coin circulated on the illegal antiquities market in Israel, Jordan and then in Britain. Provenance documents were forged in London to enable the quarter shekel to be exported to the United States. 

Over the years, members of the theft prevention unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority unsuccessfully attempted to get their hands on the coin. Then in 2017, it was put up for sale by Heritage Auctions of Denver, Colorado. The antiquities authority approached American officials stationed in Israel from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on the matter and, after a five-year investigation, the coin was seized by Homeland Security agents.

The investigation also uncovered what antiquities authorities described as a “network that included traders in illegal antiquities and smugglers,” but it is not clear if any arrests have been made in the case. 

At Monday’s ceremony, Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, who heads the office’s antiquities trafficking unit said, “Today’s repatriation to Israel of this extraordinary coin represents a cherished piece of history finally going home. But it also represents an equally extraordinary partnership between New York’s antiquities trafficking unit and the Israeli Antiquities Authority. It is a partnership that should be used as a model in recovering pillaged cultural heritage around the world.”

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The coin was originally minted by imperial Roman authorities and then restruck during the Jewish Great Revolt. The Roman Empire had granted local rulers limited permission to mint bronze coins, but the minting of silver coins was a much more limited privilege. 

“Because of this, the minting of silver coins by the leaders of the Great Revolt was in fact a declaration of independence by the Jews in the Land of Israel, a statement against the mighty empire that stood before them,” explained Ilan Hadad, an archaeologist and the inspector in charge of commerce in the Israel Antiquities Authority’s theft prevention unit. “Many of the rebels’ silver coins were struck over imperial silver coins, covering the emperor’s face with Jewish motifs. This gave the coin a much greater symbolic value than the monetary value of the coin itself.” 

The quarter shekel has a simple design of three palm branches on the front, with the number 4 in Hebrew surrounded by a wreath on the back, which dates it to the fourth year of the revolt. “This is the beginning of a very positive and important trend for the restoration of cultural heritage assets,” said Eskozido, the Israel Antiquities Authority director.