Coins sold online for 1,500 euros: what the police discovered

They were returned to the hands Eleni Surani, Greek Ambassador to Italy, five coins from Ancient Greece dating from the 5th and 1st centuries BC. They were put up for sale online with a total price of 1,500 euros, but were identified by the Carabinieri of Monza’s cultural heritage unit during routine checks of e-commerce sites. These are small coins that have great historical value. Thus, investigations launched by the Carabinieri – part of an effort to combat the underground market in archaeological materials, coordinated by the judicial authorities of Milan – allowed the confiscation of coins that, according to officials, were of an archaeological nature and of Greek origin. Sabap of Milan, Archaeological Department.

The coins in question provide direct and tangible evidence of the art, culture and economy of the ancient Greek world, across a chronological span that spans both the Classical and Hellenistic periods, and which witnesses the creation and then dissemination of patterns of an artistic and cultural nature. an activity that had a profound impact on the entire Mediterranean basin and throughout Europe. They provide valuable information about the history, politics and culture of past civilizations, as well as technology, art, religion, trade and economic relations between different regions.

The Athenian tetradrachm, a coin used in archaic Greece, extols in its subjects the city under the protection of Athena, depicted on the obverse and resembling on the reverse an owl, her favorite animal, perched on an amphora, a direct reference to the industries of agriculture and trade on which wealth was based Attica. However, tetradramas in the name of Alexander the Great have on the front side an image of the Macedonian sovereign with his head covered with a lion’s skin, to emphasize the identification with Hercules, who, after killing the Nemean Lion, covered himself with his lion’s skin. naked. On the reverse is the image of Zeus, the father of the gods and Alexander the Great himself, revealed to him by the oracle of Amon from the oasis of Siwa, one of the most famous oracles of antiquity.

The images of Dionysus and Hercules on their tetradrachms are still among the most cherished cults of the inhabitants of Thassos. If Dionysus cannot help but recall the wine production that existed on Thassos since ancient times, then Hercules is here in the form of the patron deity of the island, as evidenced by the inscription accompanying the image and qualifying him as Soter, that is, the savior.

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