Cairo Airport police officers have foiled an attempt by an Egyptian passenger to smuggle antique coins and documents out of the country. According to the Middle East News Agency, MENA, the seized antiquity pieces were found in the luggage of Hani F. K, 45, and an engineer.
The antiquities unit at Cairo Airport said that the coins mostly date back to the times of Egyptian monarchs who reigned in the first half of the 20th century.
Egyptian law prohibits the personal possession of antiquities.
According to Director General of the Antiquities Units at Cairo International Airport, Hamdy Hammam, the seized antiquities included 25 Ottoman coins, 50 from the Sultan Hussein Kamel era (1914 – 1917), 74 from the King Fouad era (1922 – 1936), 247 from the King Farouk era (1936 – 1952), as well as three Saudi Arabian coins from the time of King Abdulaziz Al Saud (1932 – 1953) and two pre-1948 Palestinian coins.
“Among the coins from the era of King Farouk was a very rare gold coin,” Hammam said, adding that the collection included 24 old bonds, documents and slave contracts.
Watani International
2 September 2017