Ancient coin treasure discovered with OKM metal detector Black Hawk in Turkey

There's nothing more satisfying than success, especially in terms of finding an ancient gold treasure. Yet another OKM customer from Turkey joined the group of lucky finders of legendary coin treasures. He sent us several photos of his coins and permitted to publish his favorite one in this post.

Using his pulse induction metal detector Black Hawk he detected this valuable ancient coin treasure in a depth of approx. 2.5 m (8.2 ft). The treasure hunter's absolute favorite is a well preserved ancient Greek gold coin dating back to the 5th century BC.

The gold coin, which depicts an explicit Athenian motif, has

• a diameter of approx. 3.5 cm (1.3 inches)
• and a weight of 42.8 g (1.51 ounces).

The discovered gold coin is a so-called decadrachma of Athens and was probably minted in 467 BC. Its value at that time corresponded to 10 Drachmas and surpassed all other Athenian coins according to size and weight. The most present silver coin at that time was the drachma, that weighed approx. 4.37 g (0.15 ounces).

Based on the gold coin's good state of preservation, you clearly see

• a helmeted head of city goddess Athena on the front side
• and an owl on the back side, that is depicted in a very special posture. Unlike the owls on common coins, this coin's pictogram shows the owl with widely spread wings.

This very special posture of the owl symbolizes the pride of the Greeks, who defeated the Persian intruders. Some mentionable battles are:

• the naval battle of Salamis 480 BC
• the naval battle of Mycale
• the battle of Plataea 479 BC

During these battles, the Persians has been fought and forced to leave Greece. While the Greco-Persian Wars continued, the small states of Greece were not in real danger anymore.

The owl (actually the little owl, a subspecies of the owls) was holy to the goddess Athena, who was city goddess of Athens as well as goddess of wisdom. So, it was a wise decision to utilize the OKM metal detector Black Hawk to search for buried treasures.

This treasure find is a numismatic rarity, because there are not many decadrachmas known. One example can be found in the Numismatic Collection of the state-owned museum of Berlin.