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Gold Valens in Egypt

Ancient, Treasures

Archaeologists in the Sinai peninsula have discovered two gold coins with the portrait of Emperor Valens on them.

The coins are the first of their kind to be found in Egypt, the country’s antiquities council said.

The Supreme Council for Antiquities said excavations at a site west of St Catherine’s monastery in Sinai unearthed two coins containing images of Valens, who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire from 364 to 378 AD.

Valens was the cursed emperor who managed to piss away an army at Adrianople.

2 thoughts on “Gold Valens in Egypt”

    1. Here’s an article with a little more information on the coins.

      Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the SCA, described this discovery as unique because it is the first time that objects linked to that emperor have been found in Egypt. “Coins of Valens were previously found in Lebanon and Syria,” Hawass said, adding that remnants of walls along with fragments of clay, glass and porcelain dating to the same era were also unearthed.

      On the obverse side is an image of Emperor Valens wearing his official attire and an ornate crown decorated with two rows of pearls surrounding a gold cross. The reverse shows the emperor in military attire, holding in his left hand a staff with a cross and in his right a ball surmounted by a winged angel.

      Tareq El-Naggar, head of Coptic and Islamic monuments in Sinai, said both coins were minted in Antioch (now Antakya in southern Turkey).

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