Numismatic Museum
05-02-2013 15:35
The Numismatic Museum of Athens is under the roof of the “Iliou Melathron”, the monumental private residence of Heinrich Schliemann, the “father of Mycenaean archaeology”, designed by Ernst Ziller. The Numismatic Museum is one of the oldest public museums in Greece and a vast collection of ancient and modern coinage is exhibited.
The Numismatic Museum was first established in 1843 and co-housed with the National Library in a room at the University of Athens. In 1856, Achilles Postolakas was appointed as the numismatic expert and was the first to set the basis of the scientific organization of the Museum.
The Numismatic Museum remained within the premises of the Academy of Athens until 1940, when the director Eirene Varoucha assumed the responsibility to transport the collections to the Bank of Greece for safety due to World War II. In 1946, the Numismatic Collection was relocated to the first floor of the National Archaeological Museum, where the new exhibition was completed in 1956.
In 1984, the Ministry of Culture assigned the Iliou Melathron to house the Numismatic Museum. The monument was in need of extensive restoration and conservation works on its murals and mosaics. In 1998, after extensive and time-consuming restoration works, the permanent exhibition of the Museum was inaugurated in Iliou Melathron.
The collection of the museum comprises of collections of coinage starting of the early city-states of the 6th century B.C. till the modern world. Some of the most notable exhibits are the coins with the turtles of Aegina and owls of Athens, the first coins issued in Greece. Also the gold stater of Alexander the Great was one of the earliest coins to be distributed internationally during the Classical and Hellenistic periods.
There are also coins dating from the Roman and the Byzantine Era, denarii, aureii, sestertii, solidi, follies, coins of the great European powers of the 18th century and the Ottoman Empire till the phoenices issued by Ioannis Kapodistrias in 1828, the first national coins of the Modern Greek state and the drachm, first issued by King Otho in 1832 till the modern paper money.
Athens Numismatic Museum (useful info)
(housed in "Iliou Melathron")
12 Panepistimiou str., 10671, Athens, Greece
tel.: (+30) 210 3632057, 210 3612834, 210 3612872
fax: (+30) 210 3635953
email: nm@culture.gr, nma@otenet.gr
www.nma.gr
Visiting hours:
Tuesday to Sunday from 08.00 till 15.00
Monday closed
Also closed on official holidays: 1st of January, 25th of March, Orthodox Easter, 1st of May, 25th and 26th of December
Ticket price: 3 euros
Access: via metro, Syntagma station or Panepistimio or alternatively via the trolley buses 2, 3, 4, 11, 13
There's an elevator for disabled people.