Memoranda Numismatica Atheniensia 3
Vasiliki Penna
The Thera/1910 hoard: a contribution to the history of Mesa Gonia, Santorini
MNA 3 (2018)
An initial version of this study composed by Vasso Penna had been presented during an one-day colloquium held at Santorini in August 2008. After her untimely death in May 2018, the text was retrieved and a few months later its publication was realized.
The discussed coin hoard Thera/1910 had been found at the village Mesa Gonia, in the broader area of Episkopi. The hoard comprises 450 billon aspra trachea, struck within some forty years, from ca. 1167 to 1208: 7 coins of emperor Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180), 65 coins of Isaac II Angelos (1185–1195), 101 of Alexios III Angelos (1195–1204), 26 of Theodore I Laskaris, emperor of Nicaea (1208–1221), 160 of the so-called ‘faithful copies’, 84 issues of the large-module Latin Imitative series and 7 issues of the small-module Latin Imitative series.
There is an extensive commentary regarding the matter of the ‘faithful copies’, and then follows a discussion concerning the Latin Imitative series. The latest coins of the hoard suggest a probable concealment or loss ca. 1207/8, i.e. at the time that the conquest of the Archipelago by Marco Sanudo and other Westerners, mostly Venetians, was under way. The hoard is important for the history of the island and particularly for the economy and demography of the area of Mesa Gonia during that period.
The third issue of the Memoranda Numismatica Atheniensia was edited by Yannis Stoyas and Stelios Damigos.
The scientific supervision of the MNA series was undertaken by Yannis Stoyas.
