2,200-year-old gold coin discovered in Egypt

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Ancient coin depicting King Ptolemy III uncovered in Egypt

Egyptian archaeologists uncover a rare coin in an ancient red brick building found in Egypt. The coin depicts the 3rd century BC ruler, King Ptolemy III.

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed a 2,200-year-old gold coin depicting the ancient King Ptolemy III, an ancestor of the famed Cleopatra.

The coin, which bears the image of the King on one of its faces, was discovered during the excavation of a large Greco-Roman building at the San El-Hagar archaeological site in Northern Egypt.

Ptolemy III ruled Egypt in the 3rd century B.C. Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities says that the coin was made during the reign of King Ptolemy IV in memory of his father. Ptolemy IV reigned from 180 to 145 B.C.

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In a Facebook post, the Ministry explained that archaeologists also found pottery vessels, terracotta statues, bronze tools, a stone fragment engraved with hieroglyphs and a small statue of a ram at the site in the Nile Delta.

The value of the coin has not yet been revealed.

Egypt hopes such discoveries will spur tourism, which has suffered from political turmoil following the 2011 uprising.

Ancient Egypt continues to reveal its secrets. Archaeologists in southern Egypt, for example, recently discovered an extremely rare marble head depicting the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

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Experts in Australia also recently found the tattered remains of an ancient priestess in a 2,500-year-old Egyptian coffin that was long thought to be empty.

On the other side of the world, a rare ancient artifact depicting the famous female pharaoh Hatshepsut surfaced in the U.K. Stunning new research also claims that King Tutankhamun may have been a boy soldier, challenging the theory he was a weak and sickly youth before his mysterious death at around 18 years of age.

Experts in the U.K. also found the world’s oldest figurative tattoos on two ancient Egyptian mummies recently, one of which is the oldest tattooed female ever discovered.

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Other recent finds include an ancient cemetery in Egypt with more than 40 mummies and a necklace containing a “message from the afterlife.” An ancient statue of a Nubian king with an inscription written in Egyptian hieroglyphics was also found at a Nile River temple in Sudan.

Scientists also believe that they may have found the secret of the Great Pyramid’s near-perfect alignment. Experts are also confident that they have solved the long-standing mystery of the “screaming mummy.”

In February, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 4,400-year-old tomb near the pyramids. Late last year, archaeologists also revealed that they had uncovered the graves of four children at an ancient site in Egypt.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers