Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues: Concealed 2018 Konya Hoard

Friday 1 November 2019

Concealed 2018 Konya Hoard

A disappointed coiney wrote on the 'Ancient Coins' forum (Dougmeister, Oct 8, 2019)

I bought an Owl [numis-slang for c. 5th cent BC Athenian tetradrachm] a few years ago and decided to sell it last year and apparently the price [had] dropped... a LOT. I heard that there was some sort of hoard found...?

From subsequent discussion, it transpires that "dozens" of these coins are flooding the market. Indeed it seems clear that a hoard (or hoards) full of owls and Asia Minor staters has been illicitly smuggled out of a country like Turkey from which the export of such material is prohibited. VD76, Oct 8, 2019 explained:

If I remember correctly it was rumors that the hoard, about half ton was found in 2018. And claim that this is a picture of part of that hoard [...] I believe not all the owls, staters too , but I don’t know what kind. Most of the hoard was bought by dealer or dealers from US . Some was sold by few German dealers over the internet.

[picture right]. The coins seem to be being stored in bulk somewhere (probably moved across state borders to several locations) and the dealers controlling them seem to be cynically trickling the cncealed hoard contents out so that there is not a drastic drop in coin prices. Nevertheless everythjing about this process, appropriation upon discovery, selling them off, moving parts of it across state borders, selling undeclared coins illegally. Anyone (ANYONE) buying one of these coins, knowingly or (ahem) "unknwingly" (yeah-yeah) is taking part in this process and financing the whole operation. Ken Dorney (Oct 9, 2019) reveals there is even a numismo-commercial term for this, "proper hoard management" (it should be "illegally acquired hoard management").

And it is a lot of coins. Member Scarborough (Oct 8, 2019) works out: "500 kg / 17 g per tetradrachm = 29 400 coins" Ken Dorney, Oct 8, 2019 notes"I had heard the hoard was 30,000, so that math supports that rumor. I also heard that a big part was not Athenian tets but a lot of staters from elsewhere". Coiney tartanhill, Oct 8, 2019 seems a little perturbed about information loss due to the way the market treats such finds:

There are a lot of unanswered questions here. Where was the hoard found? When was it found? Who could have secreted the coins away? What coins other than the owls were included? Why wasn't this a big news story? Was the public kept in the dark so as not to start a panic and a general decline in the value of the issues found?

red_spork, Oct 8, 2019 reckons: "As with most hoards there probably won't be any definite answers to these questions shared publicly. You can thank the cultural property zealots for that". Actually what is the reason s that these activities are illegal, and talking about it while being involved in illegal business can get you into trouble with LAW enforcement, not any zealotty ideologista, cmplicance in actual laws broken. And a lot of people are involved ad would be affected by a proper (long-overdue) crackdown, member Paul M., Oct 8, 2019 says: "it seems like every major auction has like 20 of them these days".

This needs putting on record (note the trite narrativisation from written sources replacing the total lack of archaeological or landscape context)

Kavax, Coin Talk forum Oct 15, 2019 This hoard is an interesting issue. I was at the numismata coin fair in Munich in march. I thought i would see tons of owls from that hoard on dealer trays but I haven't seen a single one of them.... but there were plenty of rumour about it. The hoard is supposed to have been found in Turkey in the area of Konya. As far as we know so far, it contains Flament Group II and III tetradrachms so the last decade of the fifth century is a plausible closing date for the hoard burial. It could be linked to the "Ten Thousand" expedition. cf Xenophon Anabasis book I chapter II.19 : ἐντεῦθεν ἐξελαύνει σταθμοὺς τρεῖς παρασάγγας εἴκοσιν εἰς Ἰκόνιον, τῆς Φρυγίας πόλιν ἐσχάτην. ἐνταῦθα ἔμεινε τρεῖς ἡμέρας. Therefore he walked 3 stations, 20 pharasangs, to Iconium, last town of Phrygia. Here he remained 3 days. Iconium was the name of actual [modern] Konya.