The Numismatic Museum and World Savings Day

Man in organized society acquired the tendency to accumulate money and save it. This was often driven by the insecurity, uncertainty and fear he felt due to the wars and natural disasters he had to face, but also the hope that by hiding it he would be able to use it in the future.

This phenomenon in antiquity was called hoarding. Many times, archaeologists find treasures in excavations, mainly of coins, which were kept in vases, called treasure chests.

The Numismatic Museum, in honor of the World Savings Day, presents the “Treasure from Mulki of Corinth”, which was found in 1958. It consists of one hundred and forty-nine (149) silver subdivisions of ancient coins. The coins belonged to city-states of the wider region – Sicyon, Phliounta, Tegea, Stymphalus, Argos, Elis – but also of the mainland opposite as far as Locris and Aegina, testifying to the monetary circulation in the 4th century BC.

The coins were hoarded around 350-300 BC and their owner, in order to protect them, placed them in a black-painted vessel, called an amphora-pelicus.