For example, ancient coins found at archaeological sites are seen as useful for dating purposes but little else.

ECONOMIST: America's Jewish lobby

Here, bottles of the 135-year-old hot sauce are the equivalent of ancient coins.

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The winner of that particular evening's contest had brought in coins from ancient Greece, Rome and 19th-century America.

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Sikeliote craftsmen became the masters of the ancient world at carving microscopically detailed dies from which gold and silver coins were stamped in a great variety of intricate images not just of gods and humans, but of flying four-horse chariots and great eagles devouring their prey.

WSJ: Sicily's Proud Past | Sicily: Art and Invention Between Greece and Rome | J. Paul Getty Museum By David Littlejohn