In the numismatic collection of the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki belongs a bronze coin that bears an eight-rayed star within dotted circular border on its obverse and on its reverse the figure of Ouranos or Aphrodite Ourania or Helios, seated left on a globe with a sceptre in right hand. On either side of the figure is the inscription ΟΥΡΑΝΙΔΩΝ (right) ΠΟΛЄΩΣ (left). The coin, with Inv. No. Ν 2557/822, is of unknown provenance and dates to 325-300 BC.
Τhe drawing of an ancient coin that bears the same iconography as the bronze coin Ν 2557/822 is depicted on the Charta published by Rigas Velestinlis(1797) and, particularly, on sheet 8 which covers central and north-eastern Macedonia, western Thrace, and Moesia. It is just one of the totally 162 drawings of the “Greek coins” that enrich the Charta “copied from the Austrian Imperial Treasury to give a faint idea of Archaeology”, according to Rigas. This numismatic type specifically was copied by Rigas from a numismatic handbook by J. Eckhel, Director of the Imperial Museum in Vienna, published in 1775.
In particular, on sheet 8, in the area of the Strymonic Gulf, due west of the Athos peninsula, there is the drawing of an ancient coin, which according to Rigas is made of bronze, depicts a “Woman on globe – Star” and is ascribed to the mint “of Athos”, that is, of Ouranopolis, as indicated by the inscription ΟΥΡΑΝΙΑΣ ΠΟΛΕΩΣ. Of particular interest is the explanatory note he penned next to the coin: “Built by Alexarchus, brother of Cassander, King of Macedon”. That is a reference to the founding of Ouranopolis, the city of Ouranides (Οὐρανιδῶν πόλεως), in 315 BC by Alexarchus, brother of King Cassander; the principal god of the newly-founded city was Helios.
The role of the drawings of ancient Greek coins on the Rigas’ Charta is not merely decorative. They also reinforce its educational, nationalistic and propagandistic character. The image of an ancient coin was familiar to all: to the educated and informed public of the period and to the simple unlettered peasants who often found such coins in the fields they worked. The drawings of ancient coins, therefore, were conceived by Rigas as an appropriate (syn)optical means of communication for the easy, direct and effective conveyance of knowledge, messages and ideas. The ancient Greek coins were tangible evidence of the constant Greek presence in the region depicted by the Charta, proof of “ancestral greatness”, historic continuity, and the prospect of material rebirth and national independence from the Ottoman yoke.
You can see the ancient bronze coin Ν 2557/822, as well as a copy of sheet 8 of the Rigas’ Charta from the Engravings Collection of the National Historical Museum, in the temporary exhibition “For a flame that burns on. Antiquities and Memory, Thessaloniki – Macedonia [1821-2021]”, which closes its doors to the public on August 31rst.
