The treasure was discovered by chance in 1970 in the village of Myrina in the prefecture of Karditsa, together with the vessel – a black-painted olpi – where its ancient owner had placed it. Of particular interest is the composition of the treasure. It consists of 149 silver staters of Aegina – the well-known “turtles” due to the depiction of the sea or land turtle on their obverse – which represent various stages of the island’s monetary production from the mid-6th to the mid-5th century BC. Another important element of the treasure is that many coins bear hallmarks.
The coins of Aegina, among the most powerful coins of the 6th and 5th centuries BC, played an important role in the economic life of Thessaly in the 5th century BC. As can be seen from the evidence of the treasures hidden in the area during the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the “turtles” had official recognition and acceptance for a long time after their issuance, even after the decline of Aegina and when the Thessalian cities began to mint their own coins. It is indicative that in the treasures there are many Aeginetan staters that are worn out, due to their long stay in circulation, while a significant number of them bear one or more markings. These stampings were intended to guarantee the validity and value of the worn out coins, which could not be replaced by new “turtles”, especially after 457 BC, when Aegina passed into the sphere of influence of the Athenians, and therefore to extend their circulation time.
The sea “turtles” of Aegina
Aegina was the first city-state in Greece to mint coins before the mid-6th century BC. It was one of the most important and productive mints in the Greek world during the Archaic period. The coins of Aegina, issued from the mid-6th to the mid-5th centuries BC, bear a sea turtle on the obverse, while on the reverse a square divided into triangular or trapezoidal compartments. These coins were minted in very large quantities and were widely accepted in the Cyclades, Crete, Thessaly, the Peloponnese, Asia Minor and Egypt. The great spread of Aegina coins is reflected by their frequency in treasures hidden in these areas during the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Also by the adoption of the Aegina weight standard, where the stater was equivalent to two drachmas and weighed 12.20 grams, for the minting of local currency in the Aegean islands, central Greece, Thessaly and the Peloponnese. The rich monetary production of Aegina is not due to sources of precious metal located in its territory but to the great naval and commercial power of the Aegina people that allowed them to control various sources of precious metal and to acquire a strong reserve of silver.
The land “turtles” of Aegina
The change of the monetary type of Aegina from the sea turtle to the land turtle dates back to the mid-5th century BC. This change is probably related to economic reasons, since after the Persian Wars, the commercial dominance of Aegina was limited by the maritime domination of Athens in the Aegean and the Mediterranean. The production of coins with the land turtle, with the exception of the interruption during the years of the Peloponnesian War when the Athenians expelled the Aegines from their island, lasted until the 4th century BC. Although these coins were minted in smaller quantities than before, their importance is evident, on the one hand, from their circulation in the areas of Greece that followed the Aeginetan weight standard, and on the other hand from their imitations that were minted in Crete.
Hallmarks Hallmarks – or otherwise postmarks – are the small stampings with which coins are marked after their issuance. This is a phenomenon that appears sporadically in the history of currency from antiquity to modern times and provides valuable information about the monetary circulation, the economy and the politics of each era. In the ancient Greek world, hallmarks were a method for checking the quality of coins made of precious metal. The postmarks found on early electrum coins (6th century BC) and on silver coins of the Archaic and Classical periods (6th-4th centuries BC) can be interpreted as control marks, perhaps linked to the persons carrying out the examination. During the Hellenistic period (late 4th-1st centuries BC) the phenomenon intensifies and the use of the marks is associated with the power of the city or the ruler. Various issuing authorities adopted this practice as a relatively faster and less expensive way to make their own older denominations and foreign coins valid means of exchange in their area of control.